


The Law of Tangents

by htbthomas



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Angst and Humor, F/M, Love Triangle, M/M, challenge: het_bigbang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-30
Updated: 2011-09-30
Packaged: 2017-10-24 05:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/259336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/htbthomas/pseuds/htbthomas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annie wants to date Abed – if learning all she can about his favorite things will help her do that, she will. Troy wants to date Abed  – he's ready to take their friendship to the next level, and no one knows Abed better than his best friend. Abed wants – well, neither Annie nor Troy know what he wants, because he up and disappears. Worried beyond belief, Annie and Troy put their rivalry aside to look for Abed. Guest starring Nathan Fillion as Professor Schloss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. That Annoying Inner Voice

**Author's Note:**

> Written June-August 2011, so it takes place during the summer between season 2 and 3, spoilers only through 2.24 (though the spoilers I'm hearing about season 3 make me so, so happy!) Thanks so much to my amazing betas wr1t3rbl0ck3d, neigedens and foxtwin who were tons of help, to irony_rocks for a Nathan Fillion reference I was dithering over, ebeneezr for an awesome car name, and many, many friends on IM who word-warred with me, but especially northern_star for being the writing buddy with the mostest.
> 
> Lovely story art by /[vixtrot](http://vixtrot.tumblr.com/) here! [Graphic 1](http://vixtrot.tumblr.com/post/10862220744/why-was-she-thinking-so-much-about-troy-sure) | [Graphic 2](http://vixtrot.tumblr.com/post/10865737694/troy-found-himself-thinking-back-on-all-the-other) | [Soundtrack](http://vixtrot.tumblr.com/post/10865745618/tracklist-01-corinne-bailey-rae-daydreaming)

Annie lifted a stack of papers and tapped them on the table in front of her to straighten them.  “The first session of the summer study group is now adjourned!”

Abed, sitting in his usual place, pointed at her with his pen.  “Nice,” he said, cocking his head. “But we don’t usually formally adjourn the study group during the school year. It’s not a city council meeting.”

Annie shrugged his observation off.  “Well, who says we have to do anything like we do during the school year, huh? We could…” she looked around wildly for something.  “…give our group a cool name, come up with a motto…”

Troy said, “Do a rap.”

Abed was getting into it now. “Make a movie.”

“Play a trivia game!” Annie was pleased at how well this was going. Maybe she should see if the regular group would hear suggestions. “We could even change places!”

“Whoa, _whoa_.” Troy held up his hands in protest.  “Let’s not overdo it.”

“Jeff would think it was stupid, anyway,” Abed said.

“Yeah,” Troy said, “He’d be all like, ‘Isn’t it bad enough that we barely study at these things? Now we’re going to add more moronic rituals?’“ His impression was pretty good.

Abed laughed. “Oh yeah, and Britta would jump right down his throat. ‘ _Moronic_? What an outdated, _ableist_ term.’“ Abed’s impression was even better.

Annie gave it a try, too, in Shirley’s high-pitched sweet voice.”Oh, now, Jeffrey, I think these ideas would really help give us a festive mood. We could even have an opening prayer.’” Abed and Troy nodded encouragement.  She dropped her voice to low and menacing. “Unless you got some problem with that.”

The guys laughed.  Annie smiled. “And Pierce would say…” She trailed off, realizing he wouldn’t say anything – he wouldn’t be there at all. “I kind of wish they were taking summer classes like we are,” Annie said, a touch glumly. Then she shot each of them a grateful smile. “Thanks, guys, for agreeing to do this with me, even though we’re all taking different courses.”

“No problem,” Troy said.

“ _Mish mushkila_ ,” said Abed.

Annie stood, gathering her things. “I’ll see you guys later, this was fun!”

A few minutes later, Abed and Troy left as well, walking the other direction.

Garrett, who had been sitting there silently the whole time in the usually empty chair beside Annie, finally spoke up.  “Now _why_ was I invited here again?”

~0~0~0~

If there was one thing Annie Edison knew how to do well, it was how to plan. 

Annie had promised herself that she wouldn’t fall into the same trap as last summer. That was one of the reasons she had pushed the idea of a summer study group on Abed and Troy.  She wasn’t going to spend another three months dithering over what would happen in the fall after an amazing kiss in the spring.

 This summer, she refused to wait to see if her crush would make the next move. It hadn’t worked with Troy in high school; it hadn’t worked with Jeff last year.

 _What about Vaughn?_ her inner devil’s advocate asked.

Vaughn was different.  He made all the moves, he actually pursued _her_ first – and Annie had loved the attention. But ultimately his path diverged from hers, and they parted.

 _What about Rich?_ it persisted.

Rich was… okay, she actually did make the first move with Rich.  She asked him out and he turned her down flat. It still stung, if she were being honest.

Waiting hadn’t worked, letting the guy call the shots hadn’t worked, jumping right in hadn’t worked.  That was why _this_ time, she needed to plan better. 

 _Is he right for you?_ The voice was annoyingly relentless.

Annie didn’t know.  But she was going to find out.  She’d spent two whole years of college with him, getting to know his likes and dislikes, learning to respect and love him as a friend. He claimed to be bad with emotion – but she knew he could feel. So he used pop culture to channel his emotions. So what? Better than guys who needed alcohol or adrenaline before two honest words left their lips.

Abed was a puzzle – Annie loved those.  Abed was a challenge – Annie had never backed down from one. Abed was a friend – Annie hoped he could be more. And she was determined that she would explore this to the bitter end.

Annie hefted her backpack onto her shoulder and stood.  Time for more research.

~0~0~0~

If there was one thing Troy Barnes knew how to do well, it was being a friend.

Troy used to think he was good at almost anything he tried.  The coaches at Riverside High had told him that, all his jock friends had, and the pretty girls had, too.  But his first two years at Greendale had shown him otherwise.

So he could dance a bit, and act a little; he was pretty handy with a wrench and he managed a passing grade in most of his classes, even though algebra was going to be a close call this summer. But he hadn’t found his ‘true calling’ yet.

He envied Abed sometimes, for his clear vision of his future.  He was sure Abed would go on to direct films, maybe even one of the classics, like the _Kickpuncher_ saga. Man, that would be so dope.

Troy didn’t have any such clear vision.  The only thing he could see ahead of him were a lot of days of hanging out with his best friend.

And that was just fine with him.

 _So, what do you want to do today?_ asked his inner voice.  _Hang out with Abed?_ That sounded awesome.

Troy finished packing the last of his things and zipped up his backpack. “I’m going to school!” he called up the stairs to his dad’s bedroom. Troy had moved out of the Hawthorne mansion after the paintball game this spring. It didn’t seem right to sponge off of Pierce when he had taken part in voting him out of the group. His dad had been unhappy about it, but Troy was still his son. Troy had promised him it was temporary; he would find another place for the fall.

 He wished Abed would let them room together in the dorms, at least for the summer while Troy was figuring out where we was going to live next year. He spent every day over there anyway (better than dealing with his dad’s girlfriend and the disturbing noises coming from the bedroom) and a lot of nights he just crashed on the couch.

Abed had been right, just like always.  They’d spent the year living in separate places, and their friendship was stronger than ever.  In fact, Troy would often count the minutes until he saw him again, if Abed was in another class, or on the ride to school.

 _Do you love Abed?_ the voice asked.

Of course he did. So what? Couldn’t a dude have feelings for his best friend? Completely unromantic but totally true and deep feelings?

 _No,_ the voice persisted, _do you_ love _love Abed?_

When Troy reached the bus stop, he sat down heavily.  He’d been having a lot of thoughts like this lately.

 _Maybe you should ask him if you can live together again._ And get turned down again?

 _He knows you need a place to crash._ True.

 _But before you ask him… you better make sure that’s the_ only _reason you want to live together…_

Troy sat up straight. That _was_ the only reason, he thought defiantly.  Abed was his best friend, he needed a place to live, why shouldn’t he ask again?

The bus arrived just then. As soon as he took a seat, he popped in his earbuds. No annoying inner voice could compete with a sick beat.


	2. A Weird Tingle in the Belly, and Not the Good Kind

Annie lifted her hand to knock on Abed’s dorm room door, hesitating for a moment.  Then she took a deep, cleansing breath and knocked firmly.  “Abed? Are you there?”

“Come in,” she heard through the wood.

Opening the door, she found Abed just where she hoped, sitting on his couch in front of the TV. “Hey, Abed.  What are you watching?”

He tilted his head. “Just some _Buffy_ reruns.” He put down the remote and asked with disconcerting directness, “What do you need, Annie?”

She tried to be nonchalant. “Nothing.  I just want to hang out.”

“With me? Don’t you usually use the extra time during summer break to study for your fall classes?”

“Yeah,” she said. “But everyone needs a break now and then.” She _was_ studying, just not for a future class.

“Okay.” He seemed to accept her answer without any more argument.  He wasn’t the arguing type.  It was one of the things she liked about him.

She watched the episode with him in companionable silence for a while, her eyes drifting around the room during the commercials.  She noted how many box sets he owned of what seemed like all the major science fiction movie and TV shows, as well as many more. Even _Buffy_ , which he was watching on TV instead.  She smiled, noticing the _Indiana Jones_ set she’d bought him a couple years ago. And right next to it were his _Star Wars_ DVDs. More than one set of them. As she had learned any true fan would have – the first step in her research project had been to watch the whole series, in year order, not episode order. Original and extended versions.

But she had so much more research to do! She got up and squatted in front of the bookcase, running a finger lightly across the titles. Some of these she’d never seen, some of them she’d seen so long ago that she couldn’t remember what happened in them anymore. 

“Abed…”

“Hmm?” He gave her a curious look.

“I’ve been thinking about getting into sci-fi,” she said as casually as she could.  “What would you recommend?”

He set down his bowl and scooted forward with interest.  “TV or movies?”

“Doesn’t matter to me. Maybe something shorter to start with?”

He got up from the couch and squatted beside her. He was close enough that his sleeve brushed her arm.  She tried not to close her eyes at the enjoyable sensation. “Do you like hard or soft sci-fi?”

She grimaced, embarrassed.  “I don’t think I know the difference.”

“There’s actually a whole range of types between, but if you’re new to sci-fi, it’s a facile comparison.” He pointed to a DVD right in front of her.  “ _Blade Runner_ is hard sci-fi.  It focuses more on technology and world building, on ideas.”

“Ideas are good.” And she might learn something in the process. “And soft sci-fi is?”

“ _Firefly_ is soft sci-fi.” His arm brushed closer as he pointed across her.  “It has a serial storyline, and focuses more on the relationships between the characters than the futuristic setting.”

Relationships? Now they were getting somewhere. She pulled the case from the shelf and studied the cover.  As she did, a light turned on.  “You and Troy really like that one, don’t you?”

“Yeah.  Brilliant but cancelled.”

“Do you mind if I borrow this?”

Abed hesitated.

“I promise to bring it back in perfect, no, _better_ condition.”

He snatched it from her hands and stood, popping open the tray on the DVD player.  “Why don’t we just watch it here?”

Annie smiled.  Exactly what she’d hoped for.  “Sure.”

She settled herself in the middle of the couch as he fiddled with the menu. “Do you want to see it in airing order, or production order?”

“Whatever you think is the ‘correct’ way.”

“Production order, then. The storyline will make more sense.”

He sat down on her left side, leaving a few inches space. She could take care of that distance later, moving closer during any scary parts.  She hoped it had scary parts.

Annie laughed at herself – she was turning into a teenage boy, planning ways she could get closer to Abed without giving her intentions away.  Not that she would know what teenage boys _really_ did – her high school years had been a romantic disaster – but she’d seen enough movies to guess.

The theme music started, a country-flavored tune that surprised her.  Images of cowboys and spaceships mixed together on the screen.  She turned toward him in confusion. “I thought you said this was sci-fi?”

Abed smiled knowingly.  “It’s a space western.  Don’t worry, you’ll like it.  It totally works.”

She suddenly remembered the way the paintball war had mixed western and Star Wars. She lightly patted his leg. “I think I will.”

He looked down at where she was touching him. His mouth opened–

But before he could speak, the door opened.  “Hey, Abed!” Troy said as he came in.  “What are we–?” He noticed Annie, sitting right beside Abed, hand on his leg.

Annie hurriedly removed her hand, tucking it beneath her own leg. 

“Uh, hi, Annie,” he said, his eyebrows drawing together. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

She shrugged. “I just dropped by.  It’s okay, right?” She gave him her best Ariel smile. Annie knew winning over Troy was the first step. The three of them could have tons of fun together – he just needed to get used to her being around.

“Yeah, sure, I guess,” he said with a shrug, sitting on her other side. She let out a tiny sigh of relief. Britta must have been exaggerating about how tough it was to get between them.

“Watch _Firefly_ with us!” she said.

He agreed with a nod, but instead of settling back, he started digging in his backpack. Annie tried to focus on what was happening on screen.

“Do you want me to explain things as I go, or just let you experience it for the first time?” Abed asked, keeping his eyes on the screen.

“Hmm.” If he explained everything, she could get a feel for what characters he liked best. But if she waited, they could have a more in-depth discussion afterward.  She didn’t want him to think she needed to be spoonfed.  “After.”

“Cool. Cool cool cool.” He picked up his bowl and sat back again.

Annie was just getting into the first part of the story when Troy whispered behind the back of her head, “Hey, Abed, you wanna check out the new _Green Lantern:  Rise of the Manhunters_ game I got after this?”

“Did you get the Wii version or the PlayStation?” Abed whispered back.

“X-Box 360, baby.”

“But I don’t have a–”

Troy pulled the device from his backpack with a proud grin.

They managed to do an ‘air’ version of their special handshake, despite Annie being between them.  She shifted awkwardly, losing the train of dialogue on the screen.

“In about…” Abed looked up at the clock, “…an hour and 15 minutes, we can try it out.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot that this episode is a two-parter.”

“I did promise Annie we’d watch it…”

Annie snatched the remote control from the table and paused it. “Guys.”

“What?” they whispered in unison. 

“If you want to play, there’s no reason to wait.” She tamped down her disappointment. “I was the one who dropped by unannounced. I can borrow the DVDs and we can talk later.”

“Are you sure?” Troy asked hopefully. Abed waited for her answer.

“Of course.”

“Awesome.” Troy was up out of his seat and fiddling with the X-Box immediately. 

Surprisingly, Abed removed the DVD from the player and handed it to her. “Just play it in order from the DVD.” Then he went over to help Troy.

Annie watched them for a few minutes, happy that he trusted her with his DVDs. But as she watched, a thoughtful crease grew on her forehead. She knew Troy and Abed’s friendship would be an integral component to any relationship with Abed. But she hadn’t quite realized, as silly as it seemed to her, just how much. 

~0~0~0~

Troy absentmindedly waved goodbye to Annie as she left a few minutes later.  Abed was kicking his butt and he didn’t want to pause the game. More importantly, as soon as the game was over, he could bring up the roommates idea again. As much as he liked Annie, it was a topic he needed to discuss with Abed alone.

 “You think we should have invited her to play?” Abed asked, pausing the game for a second.

Troy looked down at his controller. “It’s not a multi-player game.”

“You’re right.” He unpaused the game and his character swiveled to attack.

“Abed,” Troy asked between salvos.  “Can I stay here again tonight?”

Abed fingers flew over the controller. “Sure.”

“Um…” He knew he needed to just come out and ask if he could live here this summer, and even next fall, but what if Abed said no? Again? He took a deep breath. “Would it be okay if I just–”

An animated explosion rocked the screen. “Woohoo!” Abed exclaimed quietly.  “Got you.  You really should keep your focus on the action, Troy.”

Troy shrugged. “Yeah, I know. I’ll get you next time,” he promised.

“If you can catch meeeee!” His character zoomed away.

Troy hurried to catch up, laughing with exhilaration. The moment for questions was gone – he would have to ask another time.

~0~0~0~

As Annie walked toward the cafeteria, she double-checked that she had the _Firefly_ DVDs in her backpack. She was surprised at how easy it was to marathon the whole series over a couple of days. Annie let out a sigh – who would Abed relate to best?

Would he identify best with Mal, the trickster captain? Jayne, the gruff softie? Wash, the loyal pilot? Simon, the cerebral doctor? Shepherd Book, the wise sage?  Honestly, she could see a little of him in every one of the main male characters in the show.

And beyond that, she wondered which of the female characters suited her best.  Kaylee’s sunny optimism, or Inara’s quiet confidence? Zoe’s strong badass or River’s deadly intensity? She hoped she had a little of the best of all those women within her.

If Abed went with Mal, could she pull off Inara’s allure? If he went with Wash, could she channel her paintball ace again and be Zoe for him?  If it turned out to be Simon, she was pretty sure she could out-smile Kaylee herself, but she had no aptitude as a mechanic.  And forget Jayne and Book, who didn’t really have a main romantic interest in the show.

Did it really matter? Did Abed always go for the established relationships on a show? Or was he more flexible? He _had_ been the one who pointed out the incestuous nature of their study group last year…

Abed loved role play – who would he go for? She would just have to be prepared for anything.

As she arrived, Annie peeked into the cafeteria. Yes, Abed was sitting at his usual table, typing on his laptop between classes.  She walked in with what she hoped seemed like a jaunty air, and pretended to almost pass him before stopping with a shout of mild surprise.  “Abed!”

He looked up. “Annie!” he mimicked her unintentionally.

“I’m so glad I found you! I have your DVDs.” She slid in beside him, pulling a carefully wrapped package from her backpack. “It was awesome, by the way.  I loved it.”

“Knew you would,” he said with a small smile, taking the package from her. But instead of asking her what she thought, he continued typing away.

Annie frowned.  What had his attention this time? She leaned in to read. “A screenplay?”

“Yep.  For my summer elective. It’s Creative Writing 101. We can choose the format for the final project.”

She scooted closer, to see the screen better – and to get closer to Abed.  “What’s it about?”

“A story about friends.”

“Who go on adventures?”

“Of course.”

“In space?”

“Maybe. I haven’t completely decided on the setting yet.  It’s the kind of story that could work in a lot of different settings. I could set it in modern times, in the past, in–”

“Space?” she asked hopefully. She didn’t want all her research to be in vain.

“Yes. But each of them would change the plot just enough to make it a different story. Right now, I’m just getting the basic plotline down.  I can fill in details later.”

“I’ve never tried to write anything – well, not since high school.” There was some very bad poetry that she’d rather forget. “It seems like an interesting process.”

“It is. To me, anyway.” He started typing again.  “I hope you don’t mind.  I usually use this hour to work on the screenplay while Troy is in algebra class.”

As much as she loved Troy, she was here _because_ she knew Troy was in class and couldn’t interrupt them.  “That’s okay.  Do _you_ mind if I just sit and study right here?”

“Nope,” he said, typing away.

“Good.” As she pulled one of her textbooks from her backpack, her eyes drifted to Abed’s screen.  “By the way, ‘independent’ is spelled I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T.”

He highlighted and changed the word. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Annie smiled and settled in to her Arabic textbook. Maybe role playing wasn’t necessary after all.  She just needed to make herself invaluable.

~0~0~0~

Troy stopped in the doorway to the cafeteria. Something seemed different.  Garrett by the ice cream machine, check. The sisters from his environmental science class two years ago were tapping away on their cell phones, check. Oh wait, Magnitude was sitting all by himself.  Troy frowned. The man was a one-man party, why was he all alone?

Then he looked closer and saw that Magnitude was eating hot chili popcorn.  That was more like it – that stuff was like a party in your mouth.

He turned toward his usual table, and realized the problem. For the third day in a row, Annie was sitting beside Abed.  Today she was leaning in, pointing at something on the laptop’s screen.

What were they doing? He wouldn’t usually mind Annie hanging around every single day, but it seemed so… unusual. He felt a weird tingle in his belly – and not the good kind.

As he watched them, he skirted the edge of the cafeteria and got himself a soda.  While he paid, he thought. Hard. He didn’t think it was Annie herself. Annie was cool. She was his friend, just like Abed, right? Sure, it wasn’t the _same_ kind of friendship, hanging out and goofing off, and doing whatever came to mind, but it was still friendship.  He pushed down the feeling with a dry swallow and strode up to the table.

“Hey, guys!” He sat down across from them and set his drink on the table.

“Hi, Troy,” they said, almost in unison. Neither one looked up. Annie pointed at something on the screen. Abed nodded and tapped away on his keyboard.

“What are you guys up to?”

“Working on my screenplay for class,” Abed said.

Annie said, “I’m helping him proofread it.”

“She’s surprisingly good at catching typos and formatting mistakes.”

Annie – Troy couldn’t believe it – _blushed_. “Thanks, Abed. That’s nice of you to say.”

“Why wouldn’t I say it? It’s true.”

Annie smiled shyly.

Troy’s forehead began to wrinkle.  He knew that look – she used to direct that at him, not Abed.  When she used to be…

 _Oh my god!_

Suddenly Abed and Annie were both looking at him worriedly.

“Did I… say that out loud?”

They nodded.

“I–I just realized something.”

He must have looked panicked, because Annie reached a hand across the table and placed it on his arm with concern.  “What is it?”

He searched his shocked brain for something to say. What would Annie believe? “Uh–um, I forgot my homework, and it’s due at my next class…” He moaned dramatically. 

That acting class had paid off – she squeezed his arm.  “Oh no.  Do you have time to go get it?”

“Yes.” He stood up from the table quickly, banging his knee underneath, and nearly tripping to get out of the seat.  “I–I gotta hurry though. See you later!”

He was away from them without even hearing their goodbyes.  He had to think about this.  Annie was – he couldn’t wrap his mind around it – in _love_ with Abed!

What had happened to her crush on Jeff? Rich? And then there was Vaughn, and even Troy himself. _Damn_ , that girl went through a lot of crushes.

But he couldn’t believe she was on to Abed.  Abed was… Abed! Sure he was cool, hilarious, smart, thoughtful, observant, fun…

 _Oh my god!_

He checked to see if he had said it out loud _that_ time.  But no one was giving him any strange looks, so he was probably fine.

Abed was totally the perfect boyfriend.  He should be a total chick magnet, but so far, he’d managed to stay single.

But Annie wouldn’t stop trying. Not the Annie that Troy knew from this last year.

The old Annie would have stayed at a distance, crushing on a guy from afar.  Troy certainly had no idea about her crush on him until it was long over. And even kissing Jeff wasn’t enough to start dating him, apparently.

The new Annie? She was committed one hundred percent to anything she did.  The funny feeling in his stomach came back twice as strong.  Troy fought to keep from doubling over.  What was wrong with him? Then he realized.

 _Oh my god._

It came out as a whisper this time. Troy straightened up slowly and turned back toward the cafeteria he had fled. 

He didn’t want Abed to date any girl… because Troy wanted Abed for himself. He was jealous.

And Annie was competition.

~0~0~0~

Troy was suddenly back at their table, looking sheepish.  Annie commented with surprise, “That was fast.”

Troy rubbed at his head with the back of his hand. “Yeah, uh, turns out I was thinking of the wrong day.  It’s not due until _tomorrow_.” He laughed awkwardly. “Silly me.”

“It’s done, though?” she asked, truly concerned. Annie could think of nothing worse than being unprepared for class.

Troy nodded. Then he sat with a thump, and picked up his earlier-abandoned drink.

Troy was acting a bit odd, but with Troy, you never knew what he was thinking until he said it aloud. He said his thoughts aloud all the time, actually.  She mentally shrugged. 

Annie turned her attention back to Abed’s screen.  She wished Troy weren’t here, but she was determined to make this work. “Have you thought about adding a…” She trailed off, suddenly feeling shy.  Swallowing, she went on, “…a—a love interest right here for your lead?”

Troy coughed loudly, and soda sprayed all over the table. 

Instantly, Annie was grabbing napkins to help clean up the mess. “Are you all right, Troy?” Thankfully, none of it had gotten on the computer or her book.

“Fine,” he said, his voice hoarse, wiping at his mouth.  “Wrong pipe.”

Abed was staring at his screen with concentration. “I don’t think having a love interest would add anything to the plot, Annie.”

“What plot is this?” Troy asked, his voice still a little raw-sounding.

“It’s the one with the detective and his partners.”

“Oh, the one set in space?”

“You _see_? Even Troy thinks it should be set in space,” Annie said.

Troy nodded.

“Fine.  He’s a space detective, specialty, planetology.”

Troy rubbed at his chin.  “Nah, I don’t think a love interest fits that story at all.”

Annie pursed her lips and sat beside Abed again. “I disagree. Jeraigor is plagued with loneliness. I think if he made a connection with someone – or at least tried to – it would help the audience root for him more.”

“So who should he connect with? One of the two partners?” Troy challenged.

“Maybe. Why not?” Annie asked.  Why was Troy being so difficult all of a sudden?

“Which one?”

“What do you _mean_ , which one?” Annie’s eyes narrowed. “Naturally, it would be Senjala. Broymon is a—”

Troy’s eyes narrowed to match hers. “Is a _what_?”

Troy waited for her answer with an unusually fierce tenseness, and Annie refused to look away. She had been about to say ‘a guy’ but immediately felt bad. She _was_ trying to be more open-minded, especially after what happened with Britta and Paige.

Was Troy just trying to block this idea because he could see Annie’s feelings for Abed, and was jealous? Neither of them had had a steady girlfriend since they’d become friends. It would be an adjustment for both of them if Annie suddenly was involved in Abed’s life as his girlfriend – but she knew she could make them see it would be an adjustment for the better.  Unless…

Her eyes widened, though she didn’t break the staring contest with Troy.  Unless it was more than that? Troy wasn’t just a third wheel; he wasn’t just the best friend to win over.

He was _competition_.

Troy’s eyes had widened in time with hers, and she kept her gaze fixed on his as she forged ahead. “Broymon is totally wrong for him. Their personalities don’t complement each other.”

Abed, who had been watching his friends’ argument like a tennis match, cut in.  “Actually, Annie, you’re right. Jeraigor really needs an emotional connection to the audience, and a love interest would be a good way to do it.”

“You’re welcome.” She nodded, vindicated. Troy slumped.

“I was thinking at first that he could hook up with a random alien female, a la Captain Kirk, but having it be someone he’s close to raises the stakes,” Abed continued. “So thanks, Troy. Making the love interest one of his partners is a great idea.”

Troy straightened. “Any time, man.”

Abed tapped a finger to his mouth. “The question is, which one?”

At the same tempo, Annie and Troy folded their arms and leaned back in their seats, saying, “Indeed.”

The challenge was _on_.


	3. Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal

_Monday_

Troy caught Abed as he was just heading into the study room. It was a hot afternoon – maybe he and Abed could grab some ice cream after their study session. “Hey, man, I was thinking that afterward, you and I—”

An overwhelmingly delicious smell stopped his words cold.  Sitting in the middle of the study room table was a batch of freshly-baked brownies.  “Hi!” Annie waved them over cheerfully.  “Care for a snack?”

“Mm, yes,” Abed said, plucking the largest one from the top and putting it in his mouth.  Troy watched nervously as Abed’s eyes closed with pleasure.  “Very good.”

“Shirley’s own recipe.  I got her to teach it to me.”

Troy took one, and tried to find something wrong with it.  “Not as – crinkly – as my mom makes. But I’ll try one. I bet I’ve never—” He bit off a corner… and it melted onto his tongue, “—tasted anything so _amazing_.”

Annie gave them both a pleased grin, bouncing slightly in her chair.  “Thanks, guys!”

Abed took another and devoured it.  Troy wanted to do the same.  But he wasn’t going to surrender the very first battle of the war.

“Troy, what’s wrong?” she asked, with no obvious malice. He had to admit that was impressive.

“Nothing, I’m just… cutting back on carbs this summer.” He winced; it was going to suck maintaining _that_ ruse.

Abed finished chewing his third brownie. “What were you going to suggest?”

“Uh, never mind,” Troy said, sinking down onto his elbows. “Let’s study.”

 _Tuesday_

Troy looked pleased – almost _too_ pleased – when he arrived for the study session the next day.  Annie was immediately worried.

“Hey, Troy,” Abed said.  “You look happy.”

Troy broke out in a wide grin.  “You’ll never guess what I found at the mall yesterday.” He unzipped his backpack and pulled out a gift bag.  “Go ahead – it’s for you.”

Abed frowned.  “For what occasion? It’s not my birthday.”

“Do I _have_ to have an occasion, buddy?” He nudged the bag closer.  “I had to buy it for you when I saw it.”

Abed shrugged.  “Okay.”  He pulled a T-shirt from the bag and read the screen print.  “ _F W/o B_ : ‘Friends Without Boundaries.’“

“Isn’t that dope?”

“I didn’t know they sold this stuff here in town.”

Troy pulled a second, identical shirt from his backpack.  “Put it on! It should fit over your other shirt.”

Annie looked at the two of them in their matching shirts, nonplussed.  “You guys actually want to… advertise that?”  She didn’t get what was so exciting…

“It’s from _Cougar Town_ , Annie,” Abed explained. 

Annie tried to cover. “Oh, yeah, okay.  I forgot.”  She didn’t dare admit that she hadn’t gotten around to marathoning the show yet.

 _Wednesday_

Troy looked around carefully when he sat down at the table.  No plates of cookies, no beautifully decorated gift bags.  He sighed with relief inwardly.  At least he hoped it was inwardly – he looked around to make sure neither of them noticed.

Everything seemed cool. “So what are we studying today?” Troy asked.

“It’s my turn, I think,” Abed said.  “I’m supposed to come up with ten ways to introduce a character.”

Annie asked, “But aren’t you long past that part in your screenplay?”

“Yes.” Abed nodded. “But it’s a writing exercise.  Professor Schloss says we’re going to put all the ideas in a hat and then free-write for fifteen minutes on the one drawn.”

“Hmm.” Troy rubbed at his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

“Got something?” Abed asked, turning toward Troy.

“Me?” He lowered his hand.  “Nah, my chin just started itching, man.”  He _wished_ he had a good idea for Abed – it might push him ahead of Annie.

“Too bad.”  Abed looked toward Annie.  “Any ideas?”

A slow grin came over her face. “I can suggest one of _my_ favorite character introductions.” She reached down to pull something out of her backpack. It was a set of two toy dinosaurs.

“Yes, yes.” Annie said in a silly voice, moving the Stegosaurus. “This is a fertile land and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land and we will call it… ‘This Land.’” She took the Apatosaurus and changed to a gruff voice. “I think we should call it - your grave!”

Together, she and Abed quoted, “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”  They laughed.

“Nice,” Abed said. “ _Firefly_ reference.”

“Only the best!” she said. “Here, they’re for you anyway, Abed. I noticed you don’t have any _Firefly_ stuff in your dorm room. And maybe you can use them for role play or something?”

Abed took them from her.  “Cool. Cool cool cool.” He placed the two toy dinosaurs on the table and moved them menacingly toward each other. “Ha ha ha! Mine is an evil laugh! Now die!”

Troy joined in with both of them to say, “Oh no, God! Oh dear God in heaven!” in a high-pitched voice, but he didn’t put his heart into it. It was pretty clear Annie had won this round.

 _Thursday_

“Hey, guys,” Troy said, dropping into his chair. “Can we trade up the schedule today?”

Annie was immediately suspicious. “Why?” She was working on something herself, something she wasn’t sure would work out, and it was murder to keep the mixed anxiety and excitement off her face.

“I don’t have any homework that I need help with.  The professor was sick.”

Annie raised an eyebrow. “Sick?”

“You know, one of those summer colds you get.” He waved a hand dismissively. “That was all the message said.”

Abed shrugged.  “I guess so. Should we skip to Annie’s turn, then?”

Annie shook her head.  “I–I really don’t have anything either.  I suppose I could start reading the next chapter, maybe you guys could give me a pop pre-test or something…?”

“Or…” Troy suggested.  “We could help Abed with his screenplay some more.”

Annie’s suspicions grew. “We could…”

Abed shook his head. “I’m good.  I’m… trying to work through something at the moment.”

Both Annie and Troy perked up.  “Anything we could help you with?” Troy asked.  “Or me, specifically?”

“Or _me_?” Annie asked with a sweet smile for emphasis.

Abed looked back and forth between the two of them for a long moment. Pressing his lips together, he shook his head again.  “Nope.  Not yet.  Maybe in a few days.”

Annie deflated.  But Troy bounced up out of his seat.  “Well, then I have to show you what I got!”  Troy pulled two tickets from his back pocket and flashed them in front of Abed. “Two tickets to MileHiCon in October!”

Abed’s eyes got big.  “Oh, really?”

“Yeah! And you’ll never guess who’s going to make an appearance, dude.”

“Derek Mears, star of _Kickpuncher_.” Abed picked up the tickets and turned them over in his hands.  “I didn’t think I was going to get to go to this.”

“Now you can!” Troy nearly shouted.  “Maybe we can try to get his autograph!”

“If we get there as soon as the doors open…”

Annie watched the two boys get more and more excited as they talked about their con trip.  She bit her lip to keep from speaking.  If her plans came through, she could even top _this_ gift.

 _Friday_

Troy felt like he was set.  He’d proved to Abed that _he_ knew just the gift to get.  He and Abed could spend the whole weekend at the con, just soaking in hours of panels, collectables and comics. Annie might be good at studying things Abed liked, but book learning wasn’t the same as being an honest fan.

Of course, as soon as Annie walked in with that smug look, he was clutching at the table for support.  “What now?” he asked. It was just the two of them.  Abed hadn’t arrived yet.

“What do you mean?” she asked, all eyes and pouty lips and innocence.

“ _Don’t_ you give me that, Miss… Miss Sneaky!” he cried, voice rising.  “This whole week has been a contest!”

Annie dropped the sweet act.  “And you don’t like it, do you?”

“No,” he said, putting a hand to the funny feeling in his chest.  He didn’t like it at all.

“Well, Abed is awesome.  You know it.  I know it. Why should you get him all to yourself?”

“But he’s… mine!” Troy crossed his arms. “You’re not going to steal him from me.”

“I don’t want to _steal_ him, Troy.  I want to _share_ him.” In a quieter voice, she said, “I want to _date_ him.”

Matching her volume, he asked, “Well, what if _I_ want that, too?”

Annie didn’t look surprised at all. “I guess we have to see what _Abed_ wants.”

“I guess so.”

Abed slipped in behind them.  “Abed wants what?”

Troy jumped slightly and cleared his throat to make something up.

But Annie was faster, “If you want to know what _amazing_ thing just fell in my lap!”

“What?” both Troy and Abed asked – Abed curious, Troy suspicious.  Miss Sneaky was at it again.

“You know that I sometimes keep in touch with people from my rehab group, right?”

“No,” Abed answered matter-of-factly.  “In fact, I distinctly remember you telling the group that there was only one guy – who makes bottle cap jewelry.”

Annie let out a high, nervous laugh.  Troy smiled – Abed would see through her any second.

“Well, sometimes I _do_ , more since I ran into Alan at Jeff’s lawyer party thing this last year.” She pulled an envelope from one of her cardigan pockets.  “Turns out one of them is a production assistant for Sony in Los Angeles now. Turns out when you guys go to your con in October…” She handed over the envelope.  “You’ll have VIP tickets to meet Derek Mears in person!”

Troy’s mouth dropped open.

Abed opened the envelope and read the tickets.  “Wow.  Thanks, Annie. This _is_ amazing.”  He walked over to her side of the table and gave her a quick hug.

Troy fled, blinking at the tears burning his eyes. He was never going to win this, was he?  Annie was just too good.

~0~0~0~

When Abed pulled back from the hug, he turned toward Troy… who was gone. “Where’s Troy?”

Annie looked around. “I don’t know.” She hadn’t noticed Troy leave, she had closed her eyes and leaned into the hug, willing it to last as long as possible. 

“I’ll text him.”  Abed pulled out his phone. “It’s not like him to leave like that.” 

They waited for a few minutes.  But Troy either had his phone off, or he wasn’t answering on purpose.

Abed suddenly started packing up his things. “I’d better go after him.  I wonder…” He frowned slightly, and then looked to Annie for guidance.  “…did I say something that upset him?”

Annie shook her head.  Abed nodded in thanks and sped out of the study room, the ticket envelope left on the table.

“It wasn’t you,” she said quietly to the empty room.

She wished Abed had his arms around her again – so instead, she wrapped her arms around herself and rocked slowly back and forth. It hadn’t mattered that she gave Abed the better gift.  It was pretty clear who Abed cared about more.


	4. Remove One, and the Shape Collapses

The next Monday, Annie stood at the entrance to the library study room and watched Abed for a few minutes before going into the room.  He was so involved in finishing up the screenplay that she figured if she were quiet, he wouldn’t notice her there.

She’d never managed to find a way to role play characters from his favorite shows, helping him with his screenplay hadn’t brought them any closer, trying to out-gift Troy hadn’t worked. She wasn’t Troy Barnes.  She couldn’t be. She was Annie Edison, compulsive planner, star student. Why pretend otherwise? He either liked her as she was, or he never would.

Annie watched him for a few more minutes.  This suddenly felt like her last shot. She steeled herself and walked into the room.

“Hi, Annie,” Abed said without turning toward her. “I’m pretty close to finishing.  Do you want to check it over for me?”

“Definitely,” she said, sitting in Troy’s usual spot at the table. “But first, can we talk?”

He saved and closed the laptop’s cover.  “Sure.”

“Um, Abed…” Now that she was ready to put it all on the line, the words weren’t coming out easily. “You… you probably already figured this out… but I have feelings for you. I want to be more than a friend.”

To his credit, he didn’t look uncomfortable at all.  “I know.”

“Do you… could you… feel that way about me?” She smiled a small, hopeful smile.

“I know that Simon could feel that way about Kaylee, so I…”

She stopped him by lightly touching her fingers to his lips. “No TV, no movies.  Just Abed…” She moved her fingers to his heart.  “And Annie.” She shifted her fingers to her own heart.

He sat there, blinking. She wished she knew what he was thinking!

She couldn’t take another second of uncertainty.  Swooping forward and closing her eyes, she placed her lips on his.

She moved them slowly, tentatively, her tongue tapping gently between his lips for entrance.  When he opened his mouth to her, she sighed quietly. 

It felt different from the time they’d kissed as Leia and Han at the end of the paintball war – but not bad.  Not bad at all.  His kiss was more Abed, more precise, completely silent. 

Annie pressed in closer, trying to draw more of a reaction.  She scooted in, putting her arms around his neck.  He slipped an arm around her waist, and reached up to cup her jaw.

 _Now_ they were getting somewhere. She changed the angle, taking the kiss deeper. She could do this forever, she felt.

The sound of books dropping at the entrance to the study room made them break apart. She and Abed turned toward the sound.  Garrett stood there, blushing from the neck of his button-down to the top of his forehead.  “I, uh, I’m sorry, I…” He sped away like a frightened, awkward rabbit, leaving his books where they’d dropped.

Annie had been so completely into the kiss that she had forgotten where they were, that anyone could see them. “That was embarrassing.”

“Sorry.”

“Oh, no, it’s okay.  I liked it anyway.” She searched his face as she asked, “Did you?”

“Yes,” he said. “I like kissing very much.”

It wasn’t exactly the response she had been looking for. But when it came to Abed? That might be the best response to hope for.  “Kissing… me? Especially?”

“Kissing you is…” He smiled.  “…nice.”

She smiled back.

“And informative,” he continued.

Annie’s eyebrows drew down.  “Thanks?”

He seemed to realize she needed more explanation, as well as reassurance.  He placed a hand on hers. “But I’m going to need more time to process. Is that okay?”

Annie attempted an understanding smile.  “Okay.”

She got up from the table and headed for the door.  She could hear Abed beginning to type on his laptop again.  She supposed ‘process’ meant something different to Abed than it meant for her.  Which was okay.  Or at least, it had to be.

As she tried not to flee out of the library, her inner devil’s advocate whispered again before she could push it down, _Is ‘nice’ enough for you, Annie?_

~0~0~0~

Troy knocked lightly and entered Abed’s dorm room.  “Hey, man.” He was feeling a lot better after a weekend of make-up video game marathons. He’d never told Abed the real reason he’d left, just that he had been feeling ill.  And he needed to stop wasting time. He had to ask Abed if they could room together, or it soon it would be too late.

“Hey.” Abed lifted a hand, but kept his eyes on his laptop, frowning.

Troy sat beside him and leaned over to read. “Trouble with the screenplay?”

Abed shut the screen with a snap.  “Yes.”

“Wow, what gives?” He was suddenly hurt again – Abed had always let him read his screenplays before. He bet _Annie_ got to read it.

“I appreciate all the advice you and Annie have been giving me, but I need to make this project my own, if I’m going to put my name on it.”

“Oh… okay.”  Maybe he was keeping it from both of them. How would Annie handle this? Would she pout and try to convince him with her–her Annie-logic that she needed to be involved? Or would she let it go? 

More importantly, how would _Troy_ handle it?  He’d never felt inferior about his relationship with Abed before this summer, before Annie had been there every second.  He wanted it back the way it was.  But maybe Abed didn’t.  

“I–I get it, man.  I’ll let you work on it in peace.” He turned his face away, stood and started to leave.

Troy felt Abed’s hand grip his arm.  “Wait.  Don’t go.”

A small bloom of hope started in his chest, but he didn’t turn back.  “Why not? I thought it was due tomorrow.”

“There’s one more bit of research I have to complete.” Abed stood and turned Troy toward him.

“How can I–?”

All of his words were cut off as Abed leaned in to kiss him, full on the mouth.  Troy’s mind shrieked, and his body was stone-cold still with shock.

 _Move, damn you!_ his mind told him.  _Isn’t this what you wanted?_ He managed to open his mouth a little, and Abed’s tongue entered, gently, not forcing the issue, letting Troy decide whether he wanted the kiss to go on or not.

Troy had never kissed a guy before – he had no idea about Abed – but it was… pleasant.  He had no idea what to do with his hands, though. Should he put them around Abed’s waist? His shoulders? They flailed once, and then he just kept them to his sides. Finally, he just closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of Abed’s lips against his. 

When the kiss ended, Troy opened his eyes again, blinking, to find Abed studying him.  “Did you… did you get what you needed?”

“I think so.” He sat back down, and placed his computer back on his lap.  “I think I’m ready to write the last scene now.”

“Um.” Troy scrubbed at the back of his head with a hand. “What does this…?”

“What does it mean? Too soon to tell, I think.”  He didn’t open the screen up, as if he were waiting for Troy to leave. 

Troy was even more confused than he had been since the beginning of this whole thing with Annie. Maybe it was good that Abed was busy. He’d lost all his nerve to ask about rooming together. He was going to have to think for a while. “I’ll just… go then?”

“Cool.” 

Walking to the door, he opened it and stepped into the hall. Abed was already typing away before the door closed.

~0~0~0~

Abed hit save for the final time, emailing a copy to Professor Schloss, and printing one out to be safe. He carefully placed it in a manila envelope – he could slide it under the professor’s door to find in the morning.

He pulled a duffel bag from behind the sofa, hidden where Troy would not have seen it, and unzipped it.  Yes, what he needed was there. He re-zipped the bag, slung it over his shoulder and opened his dorm room door.

At the threshold, he hesitated.  A couple of years ago, Abed would never have thought twice about anything he did, would never have questioned the correctness of a plan of action.  He had no idea if this was the right thing to do – but he could only see one way out of this situation.

He closed the door, locking it firmly.  Not that it mattered, Troy had the key.  But it felt more final – and safer from the stoner jocks down the hall – than leaving it unlocked. He didn’t look back. He couldn’t – not and be sure of his choice.

A triangle, by definition, has three sides.  Remove one – the shape collapses.

~0~0~0~

Annie couldn’t look at Troy this morning.  She feared that she would see triumph on his face. What else could the way she and Abed left things mean?  The better companion had won out. She would have to deal with disappointment.  Again.

Troy was doing the same. He hadn’t heard from Abed all night.  When he checked on Abed this morning, the room was empty, the bed made. Had he spent the night with Annie?  Troy was afraid to ask.

After several minutes of awkward silence, Annie risked a look.  She stifled a tiny gasp at what she saw. Troy was slumped in his chair, dejected.  He quickly raised his head to give her a hollow-eyed glance.

“Troy?” She was truly concerned.  “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” he began with a nod, which then turned into a shake. “No.”

“Really?” Just what had happened after Annie left Abed yesterday?

Troy sighed. “Didn’t Abed tell you?”

“Tell me what?” Annie asked.  “I haven’t seen him since yesterday afternoon.” She wasn’t _about_ to tell him about the kiss and the strange aftermath.

Troy’s voice rose in pitch. “You–you haven’t?” He looked oddly relieved. “Then where is he?”

“Maybe he’s late?” Annie peered down the hall from her seat. “What was he supposed to tell me?”

“Oh… nothing,” Troy said.  “Don’t worry about it.”

Annie was keeping her own secrets, but it bothered her to be kept out of Troy’s.  “ _Tell_ me.”

Troy’s face turned stubborn. “No. It’s between Abed and me, okay?”

Annie crossed her arms.  “Okay. Fine.  I won’t tell you what happened with me and Abed yesterday, either.”

Troy’s eyebrows raised incredibly high, the wrinkles deeper than she had ever seen. Then _he_ crossed his arms. “I bet my story is better than yours.”

“Heh,” she said.  “Hardly.”

“Wanna bet?”

“I’d bet the whole pot.”

He leaned forward. “You first.”

“No.” She shook her head.  “ _You_ first.”

“Why don’t we say it at the same time, then?”

“And let you trick me into saying it first? I don’t think so.”

“Fine.” He opened his notebook and turned to a blank page.  Tearing it out, he folded and split it in half. He held one half out to her. “We’ll each write it down and trade.”

Annie nodded.  She clicked her purple pen once, firmly.  She wrote. “ _Abed and I kissed.  Again_.” She folded it.

Troy wrote quickly and folded it as well.  They traded solemnly. “Open on three.”

“One,” Annie said.

“Two,” Troy continued.

“Three,” they said together.

Annie’s eyes went wide as she read.  “ _You_ kissed Abed?!”

The whites were showing around Troy’s eyes.  “ _You_ kissed him, too?  **Again**?!” He slapped the table. “When was the _first_ time?”

“Paintball,” she answered, but her mind was reeling.  How could he kiss both of them on the same day? “I don’t understand…” Now she wished she’d never challenged Troy to find out his secret. She felt absolutely miserable.

“Me either…” He looked just as crestfallen.  “Abed has some explaining to do.”

“Agreed.”  She checked the clock again.  “Where _is_ he?”

Troy shrugged. “Maybe he knew that we’d both be upset when we found out.”

“So he’s avoiding us?” That didn’t sound like Abed.

“Maybe.” Troy got up from his chair.  “His creative writing class is in an hour – and he’s got his project due.  We could catch him there.”

Annie stood as well. “That way he can’t avoid us.”

Troy said, “I know an awesome spot to hide so he doesn’t see us.”

Annie gave him an odd look.

“What?” He raised one eyebrow. “So you’ve never hidden in the bushes before?”

She blushed.  “Point.”  She walked with a determination she was not feeling toward the doorway.  “Lead on.”

As she followed Troy out of the library she was filled with trepidation. What would Abed say when they confronted him?

~0~0~0~

Troy and Annie watched the door to the classroom for over an hour.  Students went out, students went in.  None of them were Abed. Troy was feeling more than nervous and upset now – he was downright worried.  “Where _is_ he? He wouldn’t cut class just to avoid us, would he?”

Annie frowned.  “I don’t think so… but you know Abed.  He always seems to be one step ahead.”

Troy brightened.  “I know, it’s so c–” He stopped and changed his answer. “– _not_ cool this time.”

They waited another hour until class let out – maybe he had snuck in without them noticing?  But when the professor himself left and closed the door, balancing a fat stack of projects in his arms, Troy jumped up from his hiding spot. ****

“Troy, what?” Annie asked in a harsh whisper.

“Maybe Abed called in? We have to talk to Professor Schloss!” 

He sprinted toward the man, whose long brown coat was flapping in the wind, he was walking away so fast.

“Professor Schloss!” Troy shouted. “We need to talk to you!”

Professor Schloss stopped, a tired look on his worn but handsome face as he turned. “I’m sorry, but the due date for this project has now passed.  You can leave your work at the English department desk – but there will be a ten percent late penalty assess—” He realized that he did not recognize either Troy or Annie.  “I’m sorry, I thought you were students in my class.”

“We’re looking for Abed Nadir,” Annie told him without preamble.  “He _is_ a student in your class. Was he there today?”

“No. Abed emailed me his project and said he would be absent.” He turned and continued walking toward his office.

“Wait!” Troy called after him, running a few steps to catch up.  “Did he say why he was absent in his email?”

“No.” Schloss stopped again, annoyance growing. A few papers were edging out of the heavy-looking stack.

Annie and Troy gave each other a worried glance. “Where is he?” Annie asked no one in particular. “It’s like he vanished!”

Suddenly, Schloss was interested. “Vanished, you say?  Hold these, young man,” he said to Troy, dropping the stack of projects in Troy’s arms without warning.  Troy barely kept them from scattering everywhere. Schloss then pulled a small notebook and pen from his inside coat pocket.  “Tell me more.”

“Well, you see, sir,” Annie said, “He wasn’t in his dorm room.  If he were sick, he should be there.  Troy here is his best friend, and he didn’t tell him where he was going. And after what happened yesterday…”

Schloss stopped scribbling furiously and asked, “ _What_ happened?”

“Um…” Annie didn’t feel this part was any of his business, but if it could help them find Abed, she would have to tell him. “He kissed both of us yesterday. We’ve been sort of… competing for him.”

“I see,” Schloss said.  “So what we have here is two guys, a girl, and a… I’m no longer interested.” He shut the notebook, put it away and unceremoniously took the stack of projects back from Troy.  “I’ve already done a love triangle book.”

“But sir!” Troy said.  “We still don’t know what happened to him!”

 “As long as he turns in his assignments on time, I don’t really care.” He turned, walked around the corner and was gone.

Annie and Troy looked at each other, dumbstruck.

What were they going to do now?


	5. Those Are Only Good in Kung-Fu Movies

Annie tapped her pen impatiently on the counter at the security office. The officer sitting at the desk, the one that looked eerily like Troy, certainly seemed to be taking his time. The other one, who could double for Abed, leaned on the wall behind him, studying the same screen. She set down the pen with a louder _snap_ than necessary.  “Are you _sure_ you can’t put out like a… an APB or something?  This is important!”

Troy chimed in, “Yeah, like, he could be… I don’t know… trapped somewhere.”

The seated officer – she decided she was going to think of him as Officer Troy – turned toward them, looking annoyed. “Trapped where? In an air vent?” The two looked at each other and scoffed.

“This isn’t the police, Miss Edison,” the other one – Officer Abed – said. “Besides, I told you, we don’t have enough people on duty to look for your friend and keep up with other security matters.”

In a tired voice, Officer Troy said, “Looking at live security camera feeds is the only option right now.”

“Well, surely during summer session the campus is quieter…”

“You’d be surprised.”

“We still haven’t caught the petty thief from last year.”

It was Troy and Annie’s turn to give each other a look and scoff. “And you won’t,” Troy added. Annie’s Boobs the monkey only came out when he _wanted_ to be seen.

Suddenly, the two officers were very interested in them.  “You don’t say…?” Officer Troy said, rising from his chair. “What do _you two_ know about it?” Both officers took a few slow, menacing steps toward them.

Annie huffed and stamped her foot for emphasis.  “I _told_ you guys, at _least_ a month ago, it’s a _monkey_.”

The two stopped, no longer interested.  “Oh, _that_ story,” Officer Abed said.  “Urban legend.”

“It’s n–never mind, it doesn’t matter,” Annie said. “We have to find our friend.”

“And you’ve looked in all of his usual hangouts? His classes?”

“We wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t.” They had even called all of the hospitals in town. And since he hadn’t been missing 48 hours yet, the police couldn’t help. This was just wasting time now. She tore a page from her notebook and quickly wrote down her cell phone number. “If you see him on one of the security feeds would you call me right away?”

Officer Abed stepped forward to take the page. “We’ll do what we can, Miss.”

“Thanks.” She turned on her heel and walked out the door. “C’mon, Troy.”

“So…” Troy said when they had walked several yards.  “What now?”

“Not sure.”  They had checked the entire library, the cafeteria, talked to every teacher they could find (and left messages for the rest), and pounded on every door in Abed’s dorm.  “I guess we…  go off campus next.”

Troy nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Where should we start?”

“Um…” Troy’s mouth quirked upward as he thought.  “Maybe the video store? He’s there a couple times a week.”

“Is there only one he goes to?”

“Usually.  Sometimes he goes to the one across town because they have a bigger selection of old movies. Especially the 50s and 60s B movies.  He loves those…”

When Troy trailed off and didn’t say anything for several long moments, Annie glanced over.  Troy was blinking rapidly again, trying to keep from tearing up.

Annie placed her hand on his shoulder.  “We’ll find him.”

“I know,” he said, shrugging off her hand without malice.  “I just wish I knew why he disappeared.”

Annie agreed, “Me too.”

~0~0~0~

Troy opened the door to the video store and brightened immediately upon seeing his favorite clerk, Hays. The guy always had the _best_ recommendations.  “Hey, man!”

“Hey, T-Bone,” Hays said with a smile.  Troy wouldn’t lie – using his nickname earned anyone points in his book. “Who’s your friend?”

“My name’s Annie.” She held out her hand to shake. “Annie Edison.”

“Let’s see…” Hays said, sizing her up quickly.  “I bet you’re here to rent a cerebral French drama with subtitles.”

Annie frowned apologetically.  “No, actually. We’re here for another reason.” Then she reconsidered. “But that sounds like a great idea for another time.”

Subtitles? Those were only good in kung-fu movies, and that was because they were so bad. Troy made a face, and Hays pretended not to notice.  Troy got to the point. “You seen Abed today?”

Hays thought for a minute. “Today? No, I don’t think so.”

Annie jumped in. “Has he come in this week – without Troy?”

“Not that I can remember… but maybe he came when I wasn’t working.  Let me check the database.”  Hays turned to the computer monitor on the desk and started typing.  “Nothing this week… oh, wait.” He clicked a couple of times.  “He rented _The Mighty Ducks_.” Hays frowned. “Not his usual fare.”

Annie turned to Troy.  “Do you think it means anything?”

“He’s joining a hockey club in California?” Troy shrugged. “Or he could have just needed a laugh. But…”

“What?”

“He hasn’t returned it yet,” Hays said. “If that helps.”

“Well, maybe he’s still around then.” Annie brightened considerably. “We should search his room for it.”

“For clues!” Troy rubbed his hands together. “Like Mystery Incorporated or something.”

“Is Abed missing?” Hays asked, full of concern.

“We don’t know,” Annie said.  “We hope not.” In a smaller voice, she added, “He may just be avoiding us.”

The bell at the door rang as another customer came in.  “Hope you find him soon!” He turned his attention to the new person.

“We’d _better_ find him,” Troy said, and pushed out of the store. He didn’t want to think about the alternative.

~0~0~0~

As soon as they entered the dorm room, Annie made a beeline for the video shelf.  “Wait!” Troy called out, stopping her.

“Why?”

“Let me just…” Troy held out his hands in front of him, trying to focus on how the room usually looked, and how it might be different from the last time he was here.  His fingers wiggled just like he remembered some detective doing on TV.  He went on to bend over and peer around his surroundings, and then finally placed a knowing hand on his chin.  “Hmm.”

“Well, do you notice any clues?” Annie asked. “Anything out of place?”

“Ah… no.” He dropped onto the sofa, defeated.  “I don’t see anything.”

Annie started sorting through the shelf again.  “I’m going to see if I can find the movie he rented.” She pulled out each movie and check it over. “Ugh.  I don’t see it _anywhere_.  Maybe he was watching it?” She popped open the DVD tray as well, which was empty. Undeterred, she started to search the table.

Troy didn’t know what to do next.  Should he look through Abed’s closet to see if his favorite shirts were missing? Should he check the mini-fridge to see how low his milk was running?  He got up – he might as well.

The closet didn’t look that different.  The shirt Troy had given him wasn’t there… but maybe he was wearing it today.  He couldn’t remember if any shirts were missing, no matter how hard he tried.  Shouldn’t he be able to remember Abed’s clothes? They saw each other practically every day… 

Frustrated, he turned to the refrigerator. “Aha!” he said, and Annie raced over to look.

“What?”

“There’s no milk.” He looked at Annie excitedly.

“And he always has a bowl of cereal each day – maybe two!”

“This must prove that–”

“Hang on,” Annie said. She picked up the wastebasket a few feet away.  “The carton is here.”  Annie reached in and lifted it out carefully. “The due date…” Her face fell. “Was yesterday.”

“So maybe he just dumped it out because it was going bad.”

Annie sighed. “Yeah.” She took a turn to flop onto the sofa.  “I wish we could have been little flies on the wall when he left. Did he take anything with him? Did he leave last night or early this morning…?”

“That would be so _awesome_ to be a fly… you could go anywhere, listen to anyone…or like, be able to turn into one at will.  The Human Fly! or… something…” Annie was looking at him sideways, a small grin on her face. He stopped his flight of fancy, embarrassed.

“No, you’re right.  It _would_ be awesome. But since we aren’t flies, we’d better keep looking.  I’ll check his desk.”

Troy suddenly wondered if getting a fly’s-eye-view might help him see something.  He climbed up on the arm of the sofa, lifting himself up on his tiptoes.  Not good enough.  He jumped down and climbed up on the top bunk.  Standing awkwardly on the mattress, trying to avoid bumping his head, Troy looked across the dorm room, hoping that something would catch his eye… “It worked!” he shouted, hopping off the bed.

“Did you find something?”

He pointed to the corner of the ceiling.  “Abed’s security camera!”

“He has a security camera?” she asked, then shook her head with a laugh.  “Of course he does.”

“We can check the feed to see what he took with him! Just like when we caught Britta stealing the DVD to frame Lukka!” Troy lifted the cable from the wall.  “Now all we have to do is hook it up… to… Abed’s laptop…” Troy flopped back onto the sofa.  “What was I thinking? Of course there’s no way to check the security camera.  Abed, you evil genius!”

Annie stood there, considering the camera for a moment.  Then she slowly walked toward it, placing herself at the closest angle.  “Abed.  Are you watching us?  We’re worried sick about you.  Whatever we did, we’re sorry.”

Troy sat up quickly. “Totally sorry!” He came to stand beside her.

“Please call,” Annie said. “I don’t care whom. Or better yet, come home.”

“Don’t you mean ‘back’?” Troy murmured. “‘Home’ is with his dad…”

All of a sudden, Annie’s eyes got wide. “Oh, well, I’m sure he’s not watching us. Not live, anyway.  Troy, we should check somewhere else.  Now.” In a rush, she grabbed Troy’s arm and swept him into the hallway before he could react with more than a “Whoooooooaaa!”

“I didn’t want Abed to hear this, just in case he _is_ watching live… but what you said back there – maybe Abed is at home!” Annie’s voice was a low, excited whisper. “We should call his dad.”

“His dad screens all their calls.” Troy had learned this the hard way. After Abed had to explain why he needed to meet Troy with ten pounds of halal meat and rubber gloves – it was just easier not to leave a message. “We should just go to FaGood’s in person.”

“FaGood’s?”

“The Nadirs’ restaurant.  You haven’t been there?”

Annie blushed. “No.  Is it good?”

It was Troy’s turn to sweep Annie out of the way.  “Girl,” he said, locking the door. “If you haven’t had the Chicken Shawerma, you haven’t lived.”


	6. Hey, We're on the Same Team in This One

Annie took in the Nadirs’ falafel shop as they walked in, scrutinizing the menu. Everything looked pretty tasty.  Nothing she _couldn’t_ eat, though she wasn’t a big fan of lamb…

They walked up to the counter. A college-aged kid stood at the register. His nametag read: _Ahmed_.  “Welcome to FaGood’s,” he said, sounding both bored and falsely cheerful at the same time. With dead eyes, he added, “Where it’s not fal-awful, it’s Fa-Good.”

That was one of the worst puns Annie had ever heard. She turned to Troy, mouth open to ask–

“Abed came up with it.” Troy shrugged. “Anything to improve how customers see them. Remember? 9/11 of the falafel business.”  Then Troy lowered his voice. “Mr. Nadir hates it, but he already printed out all the menus, and he hates wasting money even more.”

“Oh, hey, Troy,” Ahmed said, waking from his trance to recognize him. “Abed’s not here.”

Annie’s heart sank.  She mentally crossed another possibility off the list. “Have you seen him?”

“No. We don’t usually work on the same days, anyway.”

“I didn’t know he even worked here at all,” Annie said, surprised. “He never talks about it.”

“His dad said if he was ‘going to waste his time on all this film nonsense,’ Abed had better do something useful as well.”

A voice came from the back. “Why is there no order?” Mr. Nadir’s head popped through the window to the kitchen. His annoyance quickly deepened when he saw them. 

Troy lifted a hand to wave nervously. “Heeey, Mr. Nad–”

“Oh.  You.” He waved a hand in dismissal and went back out of sight.

“–ir,” Troy finished quietly.  “Nice to see you, too.”

Annie’s heart dropped a little further. She would have thought, of anyone, Mr. Nadir would be on good terms with Troy.  He was Abed’s very best friend.  If that was how he treated a best friend, how would he treat a girlfriend? Especially a non-Muslim one.  Mr. Nadir’s marriage to a non-Muslim had been a disaster…  For that matter, how would Mr. Nadir treat a _boyfriend_?

By the look on Troy’s face, he was thinking the same thing.  She was used to a lack of parental consent. Troy, not so much. Annie placed a consoling hand on his arm. He gave her a small smile.

“We don’t have to talk to him,” Annie said, pulling him a little ways from the counter. “If you don’t want to.”

“Really?” he said, his face filling with relief.  Then he deflated again. “No, I can’t be scared of him.  If I want to be with Abed, I have to deal with his dad.”

She smiled, shrugging. “Me too, right? C’mon, we’ll do it together.”

Troy nodded, clearly steeling himself for battle. “Cool.”

Annie turned back to Ahmed. “Do you think we could talk to Mr. Nadir?”

Ahmed frowned. “Why?”

Troy said, “It’s about Abed.”

“Okay…” he said dubiously. “I’ll ask.”  He walked to the opening between the cashier and the kitchen, and called in a loud voice, “Mr. Nadir? They want to talk to you.”

“What? Who?” Mr. Nadir shouted over the noise of the kitchen appliances.

“Abed’s friends!” Ahmed shouted a little louder.

“Abed _what_?” Mr. Nadir shouted, still not coming into view.

“His _friends_!”

Mr. Nadir finally came to the opening.  “What?” He was clearly annoyed.

Annie spoke up. “Can we ask you about Abed?”

“You’re still here?” He glanced at the cash register and counter.  “And you haven’t ordered anything?”

Ten minutes later Annie and Troy were sitting in a booth with a falafel wrap and a chicken shawerma.  Annie took a tentative taste.  The falafel was a little crunchy, a little spicy, and a little creamy, too.  It was pretty good! She wondered whether Abed was any good at preparing them. She’d never seen him eat anything other than cereal, cafeteria and restaurant food.

Troy was already chowing down.  “Told you it was good, didn’t I?” he said, noticing her surprise.

“You were right.” 

Mr. Nadir came out from the kitchen and bustled toward them.  In a completely different manner from before, he asked, “Is the food to your liking?”

“Great,” Troy said, his mouth full.

“It’s very good.” Annie put down her wrap.  “Can we ask you about Abed now?”

His pleasant demeanor vanished as quickly as it had appeared.  “Now? When you are eating?”  He gestured around the place.  “I’m too busy to be chatting about my son.”

Annie and Troy looked.  The place was just as empty as it had been when they came in. She raised an eyebrow at him.

He sighed.  “Okay. You have two minutes of my time.”

“Thank–”

“ _Shorter_ if I get any customers,” he warned, pulling over a chair to sit in.  “Now tell me.  What is so important?”

“Have you seen Abed in the last 24 hours?”

“In the last day?” He looked upward, as if trying to remember. He then looked back at Annie. “No.”

“What about in the last few days?” Troy asked.

“I saw him… on Thursday.  He came in and worked a shift. He’s scheduled again for tomorrow.”

“Really?” Annie felt hopeful again.  “Did he tell you what he was doing this weekend?”

“Abed?” Mr. Nadir scoffed.  “You must be joking. He never tells me anything.” He stood then, placing the chair he had been using back under a table. Annie looked out the window; a couple was approaching from the street.  “Of course, I don’t ask him anymore.  I don’t understand half the things he does.” He said that last statement with a disapproving look toward Troy.

Troy hunched a little in his seat, but didn’t cringe away.

With a polite nod, the ‘owner facade’ came back. “Enjoy your meal and come again.” He turned on his heel to greet the new customers at the door.

“ _Shokran_ ,” Annie called after him, thanking him in Arabic.

He gave her an odd little smile, both pleased and disconcerted, and said, “ _Afuwan_.” Then he directed the couple to their table.

“Well, not all hope is lost, maybe he’ll show up to work tomorrow,” Annie said. 

“Maybe.” Troy didn’t seem so sure.

“And he has to sleep somewhere. I bet he comes back to the dorm tonight.” She took another bite of her wrap, chewing more quickly this time. This hope was all she had to go on, he _had_ to come back tonight. All they had to do… was wait.

~0~0~0~

 _8:00_

“Is this really what he usually watches on a Monday night?” Annie asked disbelievingly.

 _Switched At Birth_ ’s title screen displayed on Abed’s TV.

Troy settled back against the cushions.  He wasn’t complaining. “His TV, his rules.”

 _9:00_

“Are you sure you want to try this?”

Annie readjusted the video game controller in her hands.  “Yes.”

“Really.” Troy smirked.

“There _are_ girl gamers, you know.  Are you some kind of misogynist?” She pressed START.

“Whatever, Britta,” he said and his character leapt ahead.

Her character managed to get killed in seconds.  “So, maybe _I’m_ not that good.”

“Chyeah.”

“Yet!” She shifted into a more comfortable position. “I’m a quick study.  Just give me enough practice…”

 _10:00_

Troy’s character exploded in a rain of limbs.  “Hey!” he shouted. “We’re on the same team in this one.”

“Sorry…”

 _11:00_

Troy threw down his controller.  “How are you even _doing_ that? Are you cheating or something?”

Annie chuckled just loud enough to hear. “Can I help it if my martial arts training gives me quick reflexes?”

 _12:00_

“I don’t think staring at the door is going to make Abed come any faster, Troy.”

“Oh, and checking your watch every three minutes is?”

“We could play X-Box again…?”

 Troy harrumphed. “ _No_.”

 _1:00_

Annie stood. “He’s not coming. We should go, Troy.”  She slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed for the door.

Troy very deliberately put his feet up on the coffee table, crossing one leg over the other. “I’m staying.” He had waited this long, there was no reason for him to go home tonight.

“All night?”

“Yep,” he said, sounding the ‘p’ more forcefully than usual.

Annie glanced at the door for a moment, and then removed her backpack.  “Then I will, too.”

“You don’t have to. Only one of us needs to stay.”

“I _want_ to,” she said with a touch of determination.

“Fine.” He picked up the remote. He could be just as coolly determined as Annie if he wanted to be. He switched it to the Disney channel – he could use cheering up.

 _2:00_

“What are you doing, Simba? Don’t run away!” Troy cried at the screen. “Can’t you see how much your family will miss you?” All of the emotions Troy had been trying to control – worry, fear, jealousy, anger – came flooding out all at once. “Whatever happened, you can work it out!”

Annie tried to reach over and touch him gently on the shoulder, but he leapt up away from her.

“Don’t try to comfort _me_!  It’s _your_ fault that this happened in the first place!”

Annie gasped, offended. “ _My_ fault? How can you even think that?”

He rubbed his forearm angrily across his eyes to clear the tears blurring his vision. “Abed and I have been hanging out for two years, and not _once_ has he just disappeared like this! He always calls, or texts, or tells me…”

“I’ve been friends with him that long, too, Troy!”

“Not like this… this hanging around every single day…” He gestured wildly around the room. “…doing stuff.”

“I hardly think–”

He cut her off. “You scared him off! You told him you wanted to date him and he didn’t want to hurt your feelings!”

Annie jumped to her feet.  “Oh, it was just _me_ who wanted to date him?  What about _you_?” She poked him in the chest with a finger, emphasizing each word. “You. Kissed. Him. Too.”

He moved her hand away and started to pace. “This is exactly the same thing that happened with that sexy librarian.  _Mariah_. Abed and me swore we’d never let a girl get between us again.”  Swiveling to point at Annie this time, he accused, “And you _did_!”

Annie crossed her arms. “Abed didn’t seem to mind!” More quietly, she added, “Until he left.”

“Uh _huh_.” Troy crossed his arms as well.

“Why didn’t he just tell us which one of us he preferred?  I could have handled it.”

“Me too,” Troy said, but he didn’t feel as sure as he tried to sound.

“Or neither! If he just wanted to stay friends with both of us, he could have said _that_.”

“Yeah.”

“Neither of us is at fault here…” She nodded firmly.

“Right.” Then Troy sat down on the sofa, overwhelmed with defeat. “Then why do I feel so wrong…?”

“I don’t know.” Annie sat beside him. “But I do, too.”

 _3:00_

Troy blinked himself awake, and looked around the room. The television was flickering away, unwatched. Annie was curled up on the opposite end of the sofa. He got up quietly and turned off the TV, then went to the closet to get the extra blankets.  She stirred slightly as he was covering her, mumbling something unintelligible. 

Troy walked over to the bunk beds. Slipping off his shoes, he crawled into the bottom bunk, his usual spot when he slept over.  The springs squeaked, a little too loudly.

“Abed?” Annie said in a scratchy voice, lifting her head from the arm of the sofa.

“Just me,” Troy said, “Go back to sleep.”

Annie stretched and yawned. She dragged the blanket with her as she approached the bunk bed ladder.

“No!” Troy whispered fiercely.

“What?”

“That’s–”

“–Abed’s bunk. Oh. I get it.”  She turned around and went back to the sofa without further argument.

 _4:00_

Annie opened her eyes, unable to sleep, even though her body desperately needed it. The sofa was comfortable enough – for a sofa – and the room was quiet enough – for a dorm room. But her mind was still churning from the events of the day.

Was Abed gone because he was hurt? If so, none of the hospitals in town knew it. Was he gone because he was planning something? If so, why hadn’t he told _anyone?_ Annie could only think of one other reason: Abed was gone because he needed to escape.

And that meant he had to escape them. To escape _her_.

So far, she had kept it together, damming up her sadness and rejection by focusing on her worry over Abed’s whereabouts.  But here, in Abed’s room in the early hours of the morning, that wave broke through and filled her.  The tears leaked down her face, an unstoppable river, and she let them.  She tried to keep quiet, knowing that she might wake Troy.  He was just as tired as she was.  One of them needed to be alert for the search tomorrow. But try as she might, a sob escaped before she could stop it.  She covered her face with the blanket and listened carefully to see if Troy had stirred.

In the still, quiet pre-dawn, barely audible over the hum of Abed’s mini-fridge, was the sound of Troy crying softly from the bunk beds.  Suddenly her tears seemed insignificant. As hard as this was hard on her, it was probably harder on Troy.

She pulled back her blankets and crept over to the bottom bunk. It was empty. She looked up – and smiled sadly. Troy had moved from his usual spot to Abed’s.

Without speaking, Annie climbed the ladder. Gently pulling back the covers, she slipped in beside him.

“Annie?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

“Shh,” was all she said, putting her arm around him and pulling him close.  He nodded and settled into her arms.  They cried quietly together for a while, finally succumbing to their mutual exhaustion before the sun rose.


	7. He's Fast for an Old Dude

Troy came slowly awake hours later, feeling better than he had in days.  He felt warm, safe and protected. An arm was wrapped around him; a body snuggled against his back. The niceness of the feeling was disorienting – he hadn’t spent the night with anyone in a long time.  It took him a few moments to figure out where he was…

When he remembered, he sat bolt upright in bed.  Annie cried out in groggy shock. Troy shot out a hand to stop her from falling off the bunk.  “Are you okay?” he asked her when she was steady. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m–I’m okay,” she said, running a hand through her messy hair.  Her eye makeup was smeared all down her cheeks as well.  A good cry would do that. She gave him an awkward smile. “Good morning.”

He smiled back, feeling every bit as awkward himself. “Morning.”

Part of him told him he should get out of bed right now, pretend as if the hours of sleeping in Abed’s bed with Annie – just sleeping! he reminded himself, well, and a lot of crying – had never happened. But he did feel quite a bit better getting all of that out, and it was thanks to Annie. How strange that even though they both wanted the same thing, they were supporting each other instead of at war.

He looked around the dorm room.  Nothing had changed, no sign of Abed’s presence.  His first reaction was relief – if Abed had found the two of them curled up in his bunk, what would he have said? Troy glanced at the security camera. Of course, maybe he _was_ watching anyway…

The feeling of relief immediately turned to worry, stronger than before.  Abed had not returned.  They were still no closer to figuring out where he was or why he was gone.

“Abed,” Troy said quietly to the emptiness of the rest of the room.

Annie placed her hand on his back lightly, not too familiar. “We’ll find him.”

“We _will_.”

~0~0~0~

They didn’t even bother stalking Professor Schloss this time. They simply went straight to his office as soon as they’d both had a chance to change and freshen up. Luckily, it was his office hours.  Annie knocked, a business-like rap. “Professor Schloss?”  She tried the door.

As she opened it, she saw him at his desk, his head bent over a stack of papers.  “Yes?” he said, not looking up.

Annie came to stand directly in front of him, and Troy positioned himself right beside her. He had agreed to let Annie do the talking first.  “We have a request.”

Schloss looked up then, his expression stern.  He didn’t seem to recognize them from the other day. “What kind of request?”

Annie quailed inside, but pretended to be unfazed.  “We need Abed Nadir’s screenplay.”

“Neither of you is Mr. Nadir, correct?” He turned back to his papers and started writing again.  “And I have no idea where he is, as I told you the other day.”

Annie made a face a Troy.  So he did remember them.  “May I ask if you have graded it yet?”

He stopped writing and looked back up at them above his reading glasses. “May I ask how this is any of your business?”

Annie could see Troy tense up beside her, his fingers balling up into fists. She put a hand out to touch his arm and he seemed to calm down.  “You’re right. It isn’t.”

He waited for her to continue, not mollified by her admission in the least.

Time for a different tactic. “Sir.  We’re just terribly worried about Abed. As you know, he’s missing – and no one seems to know where he is – we’ve tried every other option we have.” She added a note of helplessness into her voice, which wasn’t completely faked. “The two of us are his best friends. And he has never done this – just up and left without any notice – in the whole time we’ve known him.” Troy nodded beside her.

Schloss’s face softened.  “While I understand your worry for Mr. Nadir, I don’t see why you have come to me.” He took off his reading glasses. “Or why you need his screenplay.”

Feeling hopeful, Annie leaned forward, pleading just a little more.  “We are hoping that the screenplay might give us a clue to where he has gone. You know how writing teachers always say, ‘Write what you know?’”

Schloss gestured for her to continue.

“Abed _really_ does that.  Everything he’s done is either an homage or directly comes from his life here on campus.” She looked to Troy for confirmation on the next part.  “Or both.” Troy nodded.

Schloss sat back, placing a hand on his chin.  “I see.  Now that you mention it, his screenplay did feature a main character that could easily be a self-insert.” He pointed at Annie and Troy. “And the real life love triangle we spoke of was a definite plot element…”

“So you _have_ read it!” Annie said, leaning forward even more.  Troy’s eyes were bright with anticipation. “May we read?”

He sat forward abruptly. “No.”

“What?” Annie and Troy said in unison. “Why?”

“While I do sympathize with your plight, it is simply unethical for me to share student work without the student’s express permission. Not to mention the number of intellectual property issues involved…”

“Property? He’s not your slave!” Troy cried out, unable to hold back.

Schloss ignored Troy’s outburst. “Though when you _do_ see him, you can tell him that the grade has been entered into the online grade book. And if he asks why?” He wrote a grade at the top of the project he had been marking and flipped to another. “Tell him that he left the screenplay without an ending.”

Annie couldn’t help her surprise. “It wasn’t… finished?”

“No,” he said.  “It ended on a cliffhanger.  A cheap ploy, if you ask me.”

“What kind of a cliff—?”

He huffed in annoyance.  “Does it matter?  The project rubric clearly stated that the story needed a beginning, middle and an end. He lost twenty-five percent of his grade for that stunt.” He continued to scribble on the pages as he added, “Now if you don’t mind, I have quite a few of these to grade, and I’d prefer to keep these hours open for my _actual_ students.”

It was clear to Annie now that no amount of logical reasoning would convince Professor Schloss to let them see the screenplay.  She was going to have to employ another tactic. Turning toward Troy, she mouthed, “I’m going to try something else.”

He mouthed back, “Okay. What?”

She started to unbutton her cardigan as unobtrusively as possible, hating herself a little as she did it. 

Troy swallowed.

Thank god Britta wasn’t here, or she would get an unwanted earful. Britta probably never used her sexuality for favors. But this was for Abed, right? And though she hated to admit it, she’d learned she was pretty good as bait and distraction.

When a decent – okay, more than decent – amount of cleavage was showing, she placed her hands square on the desk and leaned forward provocatively. “Professor Schloss?” she asked, adding a bit of huskiness to her voice.

“What?” he asked as he looked up.  His eyes flashed with anger. Then they fixated on her boobs.

Annie smiled.

But the fixation didn’t last long.  He looked up into her face with a quirk of his lips.  “Really?”

She fought to keep smiling.  “Are you _sure_ I can’t just take a _peek_ at that ending?”

He shook his head, disgusted.  “Completely sure,” he said, and then murmured, “Amateurs.”

“ _Completely_ completely sure?” Troy asked. Annie turned to the side to see that he had stripped to the waist, his not-unattractive pecs on display. He flexed a bicep for good measure.

Annie swallowed.

“Get out of my office!” Schloss yelled, finally fed up. “Or I’ll call security!”

“Okay, okay!” Annie said, putting her hands up in entreaty. She couldn’t give up, not when Abed’s safety was on the line. “We’ll just—”

She intentionally knocked over a cup of pens, crying out in mock-surprise. “I’m so sorry!” She scrabbled at them to help clean them up. Troy got in on it, too, and as Schloss squawked, they made a huge mess of the stack of projects.

And there it was.  Near the bottom, marked with Abed’s name. She snagged it – and ran.

“Hey! Get back here!” she heard Schloss shout from behind her, but she didn’t look back.  She heard running feet keeping pace, and she hoped it was Troy.  She couldn’t take a moment to check, though. Cutting down one hallway without warning, she ran pell-mell through the students ambling in the other direction. She was leaving a trail of startled students in her wake.

Suddenly she realized that she’d never refastened her buttons.  With one hand, she held her sweater together, and clutched the stolen screenplay in the other as she ran. Had she lost him? She took a chance at peeking over her shoulder.

Troy _was_ keeping pace, but Schloss was at the other end of the hall, racing toward them with a determined scowl on his face. She gasped; she hadn’t expected him to be so close!

Troy panted beside her as they ran. “ _Damn_! He’s fast for an old dude!”

“I’m not _that_ old!” Schloss protested behind them. If he was close enough to hear, he was close enough to catch them!

She let go of her sweater and fumbled with the script in her hands, forgetting propriety. She tore off the first set of pages while still running. “Here!”  Annie shoved the rest at Troy.  “I’ll cut this way, you go the other.”

Troy nodded grimly while taking the pages. “He can’t split himself in half.” For a brief moment he looked doubtful. “Or can he?” Then he seemed to convince himself. “No, he can’t.”

Annie made a sudden pivot to her left, calling out, “Text me when you’re safe!”

She hurdled a bench and pushed through a group of friends in her haste to get away.  But just her luck, Schloss had chosen to go after _Annie_. She gritted her teeth and kept running, heading into the History building.

Ahead of her, the Troy and Abed security guard clones had positioned themselves across a corridor to block her way.  She was trapped!

“Stop!” Officer Abed shouted, brandishing his taser. Officer Troy assumed a mirror-image stance.  Students caught in the middle shrieked and cowered out of the way.

Annie sighed and faltered slightly.  There was no way to escape. 

But Annie would not give up. She was going to find Abed, electric shock or no.  Officer Troy shouted another warning. “This is your last chance! Stop right there or we’ll shoot!”

Annie simply lowered her head as if to charge them. She could hear their weapons whine as they fired…

One of the classroom doors opened between Annie and the guards. Like a vision of ginger non-grace, Garrett shuffled out, an enormous stack of textbooks in his arms. The probes hit Garrett square in the side, and he convulsed, his books flying everywhere.  Annie slid across the laminate floor and out of the way.  One of the books, a heavy British History tome, arced up and straight into Schloss’s temple.  The guards, caught by surprise, were unable to snag her as she flew past and out of the opposite exit doors to freedom.

As she ran to safety, exhilarated, she decided she owed Garrett a cake for that unexpected help.  A dozen cakes, if she could find the right dairy-free, gluten-free, allergen-free recipe.

~0~0~0~

They met in a park several blocks away.  Nowhere familiar was safe, not her place, not Troy dad’s, not Abed’s.  She was lucky that her car wasn’t stopped going out of the parking lot – never had she been actually _happy_ that Greendale’s security force was underfunded before.

Annie made sure to park her car out of sight, but close enough to the park to reach it easily. Troy had pressed himself up against the concrete wall on one side of the bathrooms. It was a good hiding place; they wouldn’t be seen from the street. She didn’t know how long he had been here. 

“Are you okay?” she asked, pressing herself beside him.

He nodded. “You?”

“Yeah.” She bit her lip before adding. “Garrett took one for the team, though.”

Troy tapped his chest two times with his fist. “Summer Study Group Solidarity, yo.”

She copied him, but her hand quickly dropped.  Their summer study group was incomplete as long as Abed was missing.  “Anyway,” she said, pointing to the second portion of the screenplay he held, “what did you find out? There was nothing new in my section – just things we’d already read.”

“Oh?” He lifted it and offered it to her. “I didn’t read it yet.” Annie’s mouth opened to ask why, but he clarified. “It didn’t seem right to start without you.”

“Thank you…” Annie blushed, though she hoped Troy didn’t notice in the shadow of the wall. She took the pages from him and flipped slowly to the first text she didn’t recognize.

Abed’s character, Jeraigor, was in the midst of a terrible decision. One, then the other of his teammates came to him and tried to convince the space detective to try their solution.  Jeraigor excused himself to his quarters. After a time of meditation, Jeraigor turned to the computer and inputted a set of coordinates.

“Oh!” Annie exclaimed softly, before reading the next words aloud. “‘Return to the mothership.’“

Troy read next, “ _To be continued_.” He frowned. “Huh.”

“No wonder he got a bad grade.  That’s not an ending at all. Return to the moth–”

Suddenly she knew, and Troy seemed to have realized the answer at the same time.  “Mothership!”


	8. Driving a Barely-Controlled Beast

Annie gripped the steering wheel, trying to keep from obsessively checking the dashboard every few seconds.  Instead, she glanced over at Troy, who was nodding in time to the music, singing under his breath, watching the road go by.  If he could tell how nervous Annie was, he wasn’t showing it.

She’d never taken her car on a longer trip than across town. And now they had driven almost three hours down the interstate on what could very well be a wild goose chase. But Troy didn’t have a car, so…

They were lucky that Professor Duncan was not as difficult to ‘reason’ with as Professor Schloss.  (Annie still wasn’t sure whether he knew her by name or by boobs.) Duncan still had his notes from Abed’s psychotic break this last Christmas – complete with a copy of the Christmas card and envelope from Abed’s mother.

So they had an address, but no name and no phone number. It would have to be enough.

She looked again at her dashboard, mentally calculating the number of miles they had driven with the number of gallons they’d put in the tank before leaving (the odometer worked but not the gas gauge). They _should_ have a half a tank left, but highway driving was different than city driving, especially when you were trying to keep up with traffic…

“You okay, Annie?” Troy asked.

She realized she was biting her lip. “Yeah.” She unclenched her hands as well. “Mostly.”

“He’ll be there, Annie,” Troy said. He was trying to sound confident, but she could hear the tension in his voice.

“He will,” she agreed.  “But I’m not sure _we_ will.”

“This old boy?” Troy cracked a smile, slapping the dashboard with one hand. “He’ll get us there.”

“Troy!” She winced. “Careful!”

“What? Are you afraid I’ll… Hulk-SMASH it or something?”

“Yes, actually!”

He was immediately abashed. “Sorry.” He glided his fingers gently across the glove box this time. “Sorry to you, too, boy.” 

“Cruella isn’t a boy,” Annie said quietly, a little embarrassed, keeping her eyes on the road.

“Cruella?” Troy asked. She could hear the amusement in his voice. “Like the dog-stealing lady?”

“Yes. She’s  a real…” Annie blushed. “…bitch. Cruella.”

“That. Is hilarious.”

Now she felt defensive. “What? You’ve never named your car?”

“I’ve never _had_ a car.”

“Okay, well, then, what about your computer?”

“You’ve named your computer.” It wasn’t a question.

“Cogsworth.”

“All Disney characters?” Troy straight out guffawed this time. “What else have you named? Your phone? Your iPod?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Your apartment? Like, Dick Tracy’s, or something?”

“No!” Then she made a face. “Ew.”

“Heh. I’ve never named any of my stuff.  I mean, except…” He looked down at his crotch.

Annie lifted her hands to cover her ears for a moment before remembering she was driving a barely-controlled beast. “Don’t tell me!”

“So you haven’t named…” He glanced over at her chest. “The girls?”

Annie mentally crossed her arms over her breasts since she couldn’t do it physically.  “What? No!” The  fact that he was thinking about her body was making her _very_ uncomfortable. It didn’t help that now she was thinking about his body, too.

An exit sign loomed ahead, and Annie started to slide over. “Oh, time for a fill-up,” she said, even though she had calculated that Cruella could make it another 100 miles yet.

“Cool,” Troy said, not questioning her at all. “I could go for a Yoo-hoo.”

“And I need a break from staring at the road,” And a break from thinking about Troy. She got out of the car as quickly as possible and started to fill the tank, willing herself to focus on the numbers on the digital readout slowly going higher.

Troy simply got out of the car and walked into the convenience store.  As soon as he was away, she relaxed. 

Why _was_ she thinking so much about Troy?  Sure, they had spent a lot of time alone together the last couple of days, out of their common need to find out what had happened to Abed.   But slowly her worry for Abed was mixing with a nervous anticipation for what would happen when they really did _find_ Abed.  Because Abed would have to make a decision, and she was no longer sure what she wanted that decision to be.

Against her will, her eyes drifted away from the pump to looking toward the windows of the convenience store…

~0~0~0~

Damn, they didn’t have Yoo-hoo. Troy frowned and looked at the rest of the selection.  Maybe a Coke? A Lemon Fresca? Maybe a Diet Squirt… Even though she hadn’t said anything, he wondered what Annie would like.  He glanced out at the pumps, and for a brief moment, his eyes and Annie’s locked. She turned away quickly.

“Huh,” he said. What was that about? Annie had been acting strangely since the morning they’d woken up together in Abed’s bunk.  She wasn’t meeting him square in the eyes, she wasn’t acting as confident as before.  She was almost the way he remembered her from high school – no, he never really knew her in high school, to be honest – or more like the first days of the study group. A little uptight, a little tense.  Maybe it wasn’t as bad, but it was still there.

Why? Was she acting this way because they were getting closer to Abed? He had to admit, as happy as he was that they finally had a lead to follow, he kept having to push down a thread of nervousness in his stomach. Who knew what they were going to find? If they found him at all.

Troy grabbed the Fresca and a Diet Sprite for Annie and went to the counter. Annie was back in the car by the time he returned.  “Here you go.” He handed her the soda with a trying-to-be-cool nod.

“Oh, uh, thanks!” she said, twisting it open and placing it between her knees.  ‘Cruella’ was too old for cup holders.

But he wished she’d put it anywhere else. Its placement called attention to her bare knees and short skirt. Looking away quickly, he held out his hand. “Uh, I can hold that while you drive, if you want.”

He heard her laugh awkwardly.  “Oh, yeah, okay. Thanks.” He didn’t turn back until the cold bottle was back in his hand.

They pulled out of the gas station and back onto the interstate without talking. Strangely, instead of that being a good thing, Troy found himself thinking back on all the other odd moments he was finding Annie attractive again. 

The cute way her messy hair looked when she woke up this morning, the way he had to force his eyes away from her boobs in Professor Schloss’ office, the way his glance kept drifting over to her knees, her calves…

He mentally shook himself. _Make up your mind_! his inner voice shouted. _Is it Abed you want or not? You can’t have it both ways_.

No, Abed deserved better than that. _Annie_ deserved better than that. A smaller voice added, _But is what they deserve really you?_

Troy frowned. He didn’t know. Could anyone ever know?

They passed a sign – sixty miles to Grand Junction. “So we’ll be there in about an hour?”

Annie lifted a hand carefully off the steering wheel to stroke the dash. “If all goes well.  I can’t take her much over sixty miles per hour.”

Troy looked at his watch.  “That should put us there around…”

Annie gave him a quick, knowing nod.  “Dinner.”

~0~0~0~

Annie double checked the address. It looked like the right place, though there was nothing to distinguish it.  Just another tract house in a neighborhood that seemed to stretch endlessly, but the numbers were correct. There was a four-door sedan in the driveway and a lamp on inside, visible through the open curtains.  Someone was home. Hopefully someone who knew where Abed was.

“So…” Annie rubbed her hands nervously against her thighs. “Do we just… go up and ring the doorbell?”

“What else?” Troy said. “Unless you wanna go all private detective and watch the house until we see the suspect…”

She laughed.  “You really like your mystery shows, don’t you?”

He shrugged, unapologetic. “Doesn’t everyone? Dey da bomb.”

She punched him jokingly on the leg, in what she hoped was a friendly way, but even that brief contact made her knuckles tingle.

Suddenly she couldn’t be out of the car fast enough.  “No sense waiting.” She opened the car door and got to her feet, taking a deep breath of fresh air to clear her muddled thoughts. Then she closed the door and strode toward the front door without waiting to see if Troy would follow her.

The doorbell played a deep, sonorous Westchester chime. There was silence for a moment… and then a piercing baby’s cry.  Too late, Annie saw a hand-printed note taped above the button. _Please knock – doorbell wakes the baby._

Annie cringed.  She almost felt like bolting right then and there but she stayed put.  The sound of crying came closer and closer and then the door opened to reveal a harried-looking woman carrying the wailing infant.

“I’m so so so so sorry!” Annie held up her hands in apology. “I didn’t see the sign until too late…”

The woman sighed.  “No one ever does,” she answered with a slight Polish accent. She bounced the baby in her arms and cooed soothingly, but it wasn’t seeming to help. “Can I help you?”

“My name is Annie Edison, and this is Troy Barnes.  We’re…” She swallowed and started over. “Is Abed here?”

The woman’s tiredness turned to surprise.  “Abed?”

She hadn’t denied it, so Annie pressed on. “We’ve come to find him.”

The woman – who Annie was now sure was Abed’s mother – frowned.  “To find him? All the way from… Greendale?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Troy answered. “We’re really worried about him.  Is he here?”

The baby took that moment to wail a little louder. Shushing her, Abed’s mother beckoned them inside.  “Yes, he’s here. Come in!”

Annie felt tremendous relief, and judging by Troy’s expression, he might be even more overjoyed. 

She took a step toward the threshold, then stopped.  “But you don’t know us. Are you sure?”

“You came all this way to see my son?  My son who never had a friend in the world until college?” She started to sway back and forth with the child. “Of course you can!” She waved them in and shut the door behind them. She gestured toward the sofa. “Sit, sit! I’ll go get him for you.”

The baby wailed again, and Annie suppressed another wince.  The little girl had some lungs on her!

“Mrs… um, Abed’s mom?” Troy called out before she had left the room.

She turned toward him, less frustrated than she had a right to be, and raised her eyebrows.

“I could… you know…” Troy held out his arms. “…hold her. While you go.”

Without protest, she said, “Oh, okay.” Shifting the baby into Troy’s arms, she pointed toward the back of the house. “I’ll be right back.”

The baby whined at being separated from her mother but as soon as she caught Troy’s eyes, she settled.  He slowly widened his eyelids until the whites showed all around, and the pursed his lips like a fish.

The baby stilled completely, her eyes widening as well.  Then she giggled.

Troy burst into a wide grin in response. She thought that was even funnier.

“Wow,” Annie said. “She loves you.”  Annie was impressed – she didn’t think she could have calmed a baby as quickly as that, even with her years of babysitting experience.

“And I love her, too, yes I do!” Troy cooed to the baby in a high-pitched voice.  He turned to Annie and continued in the same register, “I really love–” He cleared his throat and dropped his voice an octave. “I love kids. I always had a lot of little cousins around growing up.”

“Did you?” Annie asked.  She didn’t really know much about Troy’s family, other than the fact that his dad had a girlfriend their age, and his grandmother was a holy terror.

He placed the baby on his knees and started to bounce her up and down. Once again, she loved it, squealing with delight. “What about you?” he asked Annie.

“I really didn’t–” Annie began, but Abed’s mother came back into the room just then.

“I’m sorry…” She held out her arms for her child as she talked. “…he won’t come.”


	9. I've Watched Enough Romantic Comedies to Know

Annie and Troy looked at each other in dismay. “Why?” Annie asked in a small voice. Troy handed the baby over numbly.

“He said, ‘I have removed myself from the situation,’” Abed’s mother repeated in a _really_ good imitation of her son’s voice. “Or something like that.” She started walking toward the kitchen.  “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get dinner going.  In fact, stay for dinner. My husband’s out of town this week and I could do with some adult conversation.” She frowned, as if thinking that her own son wasn’t fitting that description right now. “If Abed wants to eat, he can join _all_ of us.” 

~0~0~0~

Abed’s mom left the room, muttering about how Abed could ‘get over himself.’ Annie looked like she wasn’t sure whether they _should_ stay. Troy wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

 “But if he doesn’t _want_ us…?” Annie left the question hanging in the air.

“I know, right?” Troy said, slumping in defeat. “‘Removed himself’? What does that even mean?”

“Maybe he thinks we’ll stop fighting over him if he’s not around?”

“Tchyeah, likely.” Troy shook his head. “Abed is _so_ smart most of the time that you forget he can be pretty stupid, too.”

“We all can. But what if…?”

“Yeah?”

“We went to _him_? Would he really _run away_ from us?”

Troy pounded a fist into his palm. “I’d like to see him outrun _me_. Well, I mean, a second time.”

“We’ll have to be sneaky.”

“The sneakiest.”  Troy tiptoed toward the entryway to the kitchen, trying not to make a sound.

Annie cleared her throat behind him. “I don’t think we have to be that careful _yet_.”

He turned back to her, eyebrows rising. “But what if we _do_?”

She shrugged. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

He stuck his head around the opening. Abed’s mom was stirring something in a pot.  The baby was in a bouncy seat on the floor, a safe distance from the stove.  “Excuse me, Abed’s mom?” he called in a voice just above a whisper.

She kept stirring. The baby turned toward him, though.  He made her another goofy face for her and she rewarded him with a big toothless grin.

Troy tried again, a little louder.  “Abed’s mom?”

Still nothing.  Annie tapped him on the back, whispering, “I think the fan over the stove is too loud for her to hear you.”

The baby was still watching him.  He waggled his fingers over his head and she giggled.

That made Abed’s mom look – at the baby, anyway.  “What’s got you so tickled, _moja kochana_?” She followed the baby’s gaze to Troy.  “Oh!” she said, loudly enough that Troy winced. “You can come in here, if you want.”

Troy sighed. If Abed was nearby, he would know they were coming anyway. He came in, Annie following. Abed wasn’t in the kitchen or dining room.  Maybe they were still good? Still using a low voice, he asked her, “We were just wondering… where is Abed right now? Is he…” He mouthed the next words. “…somewhere in the house?”

Abed’s mom looked at both of them blankly. Then she seemed to realize what Troy wanted.  “Abed’s not in the house at all.  He’s out in the backyard.  There’s a tree house back there, built by the previous owner. He’s even sleeping there.” She shook her head, clearly unhappy about it, but not forcing the issue.

“Is there a way to get back there without Abed noticing us?” Annie asked.

She set down her stirring spoon and thought a moment. “Not really. Maybe I could open the door and tell him how soon dinner will be ready…?”

Troy followed her thought with, “And we could slip out behind you?”

She nodded.  “It has a 50/50 chance of working.” She turned down the heat on the burner to low, then scooped up the baby again.  “Stay out of sight until I’m sure he’s not looking in your direction.”

There were curtains on either side of the sliding door, a perfect place to hide.  Abed’s mom opened the door and stepped out onto the patio with the baby in one arm.  “Abed?” she called.

Troy listened hard, but he didn’t hear any response.

“Abed, dinner’s going to be ready in twenty minutes.  If you want to eat out there, it’s fine with me.”

Annie frowned at Troy, but he held his hands up in a gesture of patience.

“But,” Abed’s mom continued, “you’re going to have to come in here and fix your own plate.”

Still no response that Troy could hear.  Wow. Abed was really upset with them, wasn’t he?

They could hear her sigh.  “You know, there’s avoiding confrontation and there’s being a hermit. Neither one of these is going to help.”

“Yes, Mom.” Troy slumped in relief just to hear Abed’s voice again. Annie had placed a trembling hand over her heart.

Troy sneaked a peek outside.  He could see the tree house, and a flickering light through the windows. But not Abed.  There was a good chance that if they couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see them. Troy waved Annie forward, and started forward in a crouched position.

True to the plan, Abed’s mom didn’t react.  The baby cooed as Troy passed by, but was otherwise quiet. The grass between the patio and the tree crunched beneath his shoes but he couldn’t hear Annie’s footfalls behind him, so he felt safe.

“Okay, well.  I’ll call you again when dinner’s ready.” Abed’s mom slid the door shut behind her, just as Troy reached the base of the tree. He made sure to stay out of sight of the opening at the top of a set of hammered-in wooden steps.

Annie came to the other side of the steps, taking care to stay out of sight as well. Placing a finger to his lips, and receiving a nod from Annie in return, he placed one foot gently on the first nailed-in step.

“You don’t have to sneak around; I know you want to come up,” Abed said from above. 

Troy stifled a yelp; Annie gasped.

“I should have known you wouldn’t listen to my mom. You’re both too stubborn.”

“That’s right,” Annie called up to him, hands on her hips.  “You think we would ever stop until we found you?”

“No.”

“Then why…?” Troy asked. “Why, man?  I thought we were best friends!” His hurt started to bubble up, but this was one situation where his anger overpowered it.

“We are. But I could see that things were going to change, and…” He trailed off, his voice getting quieter, breaking slightly.  This was not like him.

Troy gave Annie a worried glance and then started up the steps.  “We’re coming up.”

When he popped his head over the floorboards, Abed was sitting crosslegged on a blanket in the light of a camp lantern, hands folded serenely in his lap.  There was no sign of the emotion that had crept out a moment ago.  Abed regarded him for a moment, then waved. “Hello.”

Troy frowned in frustration. “Hi.” Then he hefted himself into the tree house and sat to Abed’s left, facing him.

Annie was inside a few minutes later, sitting to his right. “Abed,” she said gently, touching his leg.  “What’s wrong? Why did you run away from us?”

He looked at her, then at Troy, then down at his hands. “I didn’t run away from you.”

Troy laughed in shock. “I think you did, buddy.”

“I ran away from the situation. From the inevitable conclusion.”

Annie said, “No conclusion is inevitable, Abed.” She squeezed his leg. “We’re _both_ your friends, Abed.  You could have talked to us.”

“We’re talking now.” He looked up, then, and met each of their eyes in the dim light with a sort of half-smile.

“Yes, we are.” Annie took one of Abed’s hands and then shifted closer to Troy, taking one of his as well. Abed followed the movement of her hands with his eyes. “Abed, you know we never meant to scare you away.”

Troy took Abed’s other hand to close the circle. Abed followed that as well. “Definitely not. Especially not after what happened with Mariah.”

They both waited for Abed to speak.

He took an audible breath, eyes closing. “I know. You wouldn’t want to let anything get in the way of our friendship.”

“Exactly,” Annie said, while Troy put in, “Never, man.”

He opened his eyes. “But I could see if one of you started dating me, that instead of being friends with both of you, you would stop being friends with each other. Maybe not right away. But it would happen.”

“No…” Annie protested; Troy shook his head. But they caught each other’s eyes. Abed might be right.

“I’ve watched enough romantic comedies, and enough sitcoms to know – love triangles never end well. Not for everyone. Not for the one left out.”

That time, neither of them had a response.

“I couldn’t do that to either one of you.”

They sat for a moment in silence.  Annie broke it first.  “Then…” She swallowed, and he could see her steel herself. “…I won’t do it to you either. As much as I want something romantic between us, I want our friendship even more.”

Troy should have been overjoyed, but instead these words tumbled out, “Me too! If it’s going to be like this, I don’t think I could take it! Let’s go back to the way it was.”

Annie squeezed his hand in gratitude, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears. Troy found that her reaction was all he needed to feel closure. He smiled widely, feeling completely happy for the first time in days.

“I don’t think we can,” Abed said.

They both whipped their heads back to Abed. “What?” Annie asked, hurt. “Don’t you believe us?” Troy’s voice cracked.

“There’s still some unresolved tension to work out. Can I talk to each of you alone?”

“I… guess so.” Annie straightened out her legs and swung them into the opening in the floorboards.  “You go first, Troy.” She was starting down the steps before he could protest.

Through the tree house windows (it was no wonder they hadn’t been able to sneak up on him), they silently watched her go back into the house.

As soon as the door was shut behind her, Troy laid into Abed. “Look what you did, Abed! She’s probably devastated, thinking you don’t believe her.” He was feeling much the same, but Annie’s feelings seemed more in danger. 

“Oh, I believe her.”

“Then… Gorram it! Is it _me_ then?”

“No, I know you mean it.”

“Damn straight I do.” He pounded a fist on his leg for emphasis. “Then what…? What tension are you talking about?” He was more confused than ever. 

“Your tension.” He looked over at the house and then back to Troy before saying, “With Annie.”

~0~0~0~

Abed’s mother looked up from the stove as Annie came in. “No luck?”

Annie shook her head. “Well… he talked to us at least.”

“Troy is still out there?”

“Yes. He wants to talk to us separately now.”

Abed’s mother smiled. “Then I wouldn’t worry.”

 Annie should have felt relieved. This was the woman who knew Abed better than anyone, right? Except that she’d left Abed when he was six, and Annie’s own mother, who’d raised her, didn’t know her at all. So Annie kept her response to a short, “Hmm.”

Abed’s mother set down the stirring spoon and placed a hand on Annie’s shoulder. “ _Moja droga_ , it will be fine.  I’ve never seen Abed so worked up about something before.”

“And that’s a _good_ thing?”

“Yes.”

The baby started to fuss again, and she gave the stove a worried look before lifting her daughter from the bouncy seat.

“I can stir that for you,” Annie offered. She gave her hands a quick wash at the sink and picked up the stirring spoon.

“Thanks.” She slowly twisted back and forth with the baby in her arms. “It’s a good thing because Abed doesn’t usually react strongly to anything.” She tilted her head down and gave Annie a wry look. “But you should already know that.”

Annie nodded. Maybe this woman knew Abed better than she thought.

“He must really care about you two to have a reaction this strong.” She took a step closer. “And when Abed cares about something… it means everything to him.”

Annie felt a blush creep over her face just as the sauce started to boil. “Turn the heat down?” Annie asked, covering her emotional reaction.

“No, just take it off the heat. I’ve got to add it to the casserole dish. It–”

Behind them, the sliding door opened. Annie quickly switched off the heat and set the pot on the other burner. “Troy?”

He walked into the kitchen, hands in his pockets. “Your turn.”

“What did he say?” she asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.

“You’ll…” Troy couldn’t meet her eyes. “It’s best if _you_ go talk to him.”

Annie frowned. “Um. Okay.”  She washed her hands again, and then passed him to head outside. She heard Troy’s voice rise in pitch as he started talking to the baby.

Shutting the door behind her, she walked across the patio and the grass. “It’s me,” she called. Her nervousness from before had dissipated somewhat after talking to Abed’s mother, but a flutter started up again as she climbed the steps.

He was waiting in exactly the same spot, almost like a guru at the top of a mountain. Just what wisdom would he dispense?

She decided not to wait and find out. “Abed, just what is it that you couldn’t tell me in front of Troy?”

He tilted his head. “Could you talk about _Troy_ in front of Troy?”

Annie did a double take. “About… Troy?” What did that mean?

“Well, you both told me that you wanted to go back to the way things were before. To resume our friendship as if nothing ever happened this summer.”

Annie tilted her head to match his. “Yes?”

“But you know, and I know, and _Troy_ knows, that we can’t. It happened. There’s no taking it back, no matter how much we try.”

“So… you don’t want to be friends anymore?” A lump started forming in her throat. She didn’t want to hear this answer.

“I do. I want to be friends with you more than anything.” He turned his gaze out the window, toward the house. “But I don’t think that’s all that Troy really wants. And…” He turned back to Annie. “…I don’t think that’s all that you really want.”

“But I said–”

“I know what you said. And I believe you.”

“Then…?”

“Instead of talking with me, you need to talk to Troy.” He unfolded his legs and scooted toward the entrance. “It’s dinner time. Coming?”

Annie sat there, open-mouthed, until Abed was all the way down to the bottom of the steps. All she’d been doing for the last couple of days was talk to Troy.  What in the world?

She scrambled down the steps and caught up with him just as he was opening the door.  “Okay, I’ll talk to Troy. I don’t know what a–”

“Good,” he said, and smiled. Then he took a seat at the dining room table.

“All settled then?” Abed’s mother asked, setting the casserole dish in the center of the table.

Annie and Troy, hovering at opposite sides of the table, looked at each other with uncertainty.  Abed simply said, “Yep.” The baby giggled.

Abed’s mother seemed satisfied. “Let’s eat.”

~0~0~0~

Troy reached for the serving spoon before realizing his manners.  “May I have some more, please? This is _good_.”

Abed’s mom laughed.  “Sure, Troy. Have as much as you want.”

Across from him, Annie set down her fork. She never did eat much - probably to watch her weight. But he bet she would look good even if she didn’t watch it. Besides, that glossy brown hair and those intense blue eyes were some of her best–

 _Whoa_. He reached for his soda glass and took a swig to cover his reaction. _Where did that come from? Is Abed, like, sending me vibes or something_?

He turned his attention back to his best friend, who, eerily, was watching him.  Troy smiled and nodded, trying to be smooth.  “Your mom’s a great cook, man.”

“You should try her moussaka.” He lifted another forkful to his mouth.

“Moussaka?” Annie asked.

“Like an eggplant casserole with meat and cheese,” Abed’s mom answered.  “It’s Abed’s favorite.”

“The cafeteria at Greendale doesn’t make it like you do, Mom.”

“Like, they don’t make it at _all_ ,” Troy said before realizing it was a joke.  Abed was cool about it and only nodded agreement.

“So…” Abed’s mom said after a couple of minutes. “Will you guys be needing a place to stay? We’ve got a spare room and the couch is pretty comfortable.” Then she leaned forward and added conspiratorially, “Unless you only need one room.”

Annie gasped, and her hands actually fluttered. Troy gave an awkward laugh combined with a choke. “Naw, we’re not together, ma’am.”

“Oh? Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume. There’s plenty of room for everyone to have their own space.”

“Didn’t…” Annie looked really confused. “Didn’t Abed say why we were here?”

Abed’s mom shrugged. “Nope. Just that you three were having a disagreement and he needed time to think.”

“Huh,” Troy said, looking at Abed.  He kept chewing his food, eyes on his plate.

“Not really any of my business, so…” She wiped her baby’s chin with her bib. “Are you staying?”

“We–we thought we’d…” Annie began.

“We thought we’d bring Abed back with us.” Troy finished.

Abed’s head popped up. “Oh, I’m not going back yet.”

“What?” Troy and Annie asked in unison, for the second time that night.

“But…” Troy didn’t know _what_ Abed wanted anymore. He was sure his pain was written all over his face.

“Isn’t everything more or less… resolved?” Annie looked even more upset than he felt.

“Not really.” Abed stood suddenly, dabbed at his mouth with a napkin and walked to the sink with his dishes.  “Thank you, Mom, for dinner.  I think I’ll turn in now.” Only after he said that did he make a show of stretching and yawning.  And then he was gone.

Annie and Troy just stared at each other in disbelief.

“I’m sorry,” Abed’s mom said gently as she cleared the table. “He can sometimes be…” She stopped and chuckled to herself. “… well, I think you both know how he can be.  If you want to stay, that’s great, and maybe you can convince him to go back with you in the morning.  But I have the feeling…” She looked toward the hallway where he had gone.

Troy sighed. “No, ma’am, we can’t stay.  I have class tomorrow. And I need the participation credit.”

Annie nodded. “Me, too. I guess he’ll come back when he’s ready.  We’ve both said everything we needed to say.” She turned to look at Troy, an unsaid question in her eyes. “Right?”

Everything they needed to say to Abed at any rate. He held her eyes for a moment before answering, “Right.”


	10. Just Like That Time at Elitch Gardens

The drive back started out quietly. Troy stared out the window as dark shapes drifted past. There was just enough moon that the mountains’ outlines were visible, but definitely not enough to see anything on them.  Annie, who normally tended to be talkative when she was happy, or nervous, or irritated, or pretty much any emotion he was used to seeing… was silent.  She didn’t even have the radio on.

Troy’s iPod was still in his pocket. And he didn’t feel like talking, either. They’d accomplished their purpose – find Abed – only to fail at the main goal – get him to come back to Greendale. Not to mention the overarching goal of figuring out his, and Annie’s, relationship with Abed.  He’d seemed to forgive them for scaring him away, accept a return to friendship, and yet…?  Troy didn’t feel like saying much of anything.  Or doing anything except stare out the window.  Words didn’t help, actions didn’t help, what was left?

It gave him time alone with his thoughts, though. He really did love Abed, and he accepted him for everything he was and wasn’t.  So he had to accept that Abed didn’t want a romantic relationship with him.  He could be cool with that. Well, he had to be.

Annie, though… what would happen now? Would she go back to being just another part of the larger group? The girl who sometimes pulled them into psych studies or pen searches or anti-drug plays?  He hoped not. Now that they’d spent the whole summer together, despite all the rivalry, he kinda liked having her around.

He more than liked it.

Troy snuck a glance at Annie, driving with her eyes firmly straight ahead.  He couldn’t see any signs of sadness – no red-rimmed eyes, no shallow breathing – was she fine with going back to the way things were before?

He wasn’t. He would miss they times they spent together. He would miss… her.

Troy’s chest tightened. Abed was right. He had waited until Annie was all the way in the house before saying it, but Abed had looked him straight in the eyes and said, _‘Your tension. With Annie.’_ Troy had been speechless for several moments. Then he had tried to deny there was anything but friendship there. But Abed had refused to break his steady stare. _‘Talk to her, Troy.’_

He _did_ have feelings for Annie that needed to be resolved. He _did_ need to talk to her. But here they were, hours to go before Greendale, and he couldn’t make the words come out.

He never got the chance to even force them out. Cruella hit a rut in the road, before Annie could swerve to avoid the hole.  A terrible clunk sounded from somewhere under the hood.

“Oh, no!” Annie cried, fighting to control the car.

Troy grabbed onto the handle above his head with both hands, clutching it for dear life. “Oh god, this is just like that time at Elitch Gardens!”

Annie looked completely perplexed. “Wha–?”

He didn’t feel the need to explain. Bumper cars could be _damn_ scary.

Annie kept her head long enough to pull over to the side of the highway, out of traffic. For a few moments, they sat stunned with shock, breathing heavily.

When he was calm enough release the plastic straps, he turned to Annie. Her eyes were wide and her hands seemed frozen to the steering wheel.  “Annie…” he said, touching her shoulder gently, “Annie… are you okay?”

She didn’t respond right away.  He gently rubbed her shoulder, and that broke the spell. She groaned, turned off the ignition and dropped her head to rest on the steering wheel.  “I knew this was going to happen. Looks like Cruella’s out of commission.”

“Poor girl,” he said, squeezing Annie’s shoulder. “Do you want me to check under the hood?”

She lifted her head slightly. “Do you know what to look for?”

He smiled awkwardly. “Uh, no. Unless plumbing and automotive repair are a lot alike. You want me to call Triple A?”

“No,” she said lowering her head again.  “I don’t have Triple A. Or any kind of roadside assistance. Costs too much.”

Troy checked his watch. It was about 9pm, not too late to call on someone. “Then what about Jeff? Or Shirley?” Britta was off traveling somewhere, Kerouacing, or whatever that meant. And of course, Pierce was no longer an option. “Or… or… our parents?”

They both cringed.  That was a last resort.  And that was it, since Abed was staying in Grand Junction.

He tried Jeff first.  It went to voicemail. He hung up before the message finished, and texted him instead.  _“annie & me stuck on i-70. need tow. help!_ “If Jeff is blowing us off for some hottie, I’ll…”

“Punch him?” Annie asked.

“What? No!” Troy rubbed at his knuckles absently. “I’ll leave that to _you_.”

Annie’s head popped up and she frowned at him until she saw his smile. “Just say the word,” she joked. “Try Shirley.”  Annie stretched, switched the headlights to hazard lights and started rummaging in the arm rest for supplies. She pulled out a pen, a pad of paper, a small flashlight.

He was glad to see his teasing had snapped her out of her momentary funk.  “Will do,” he said, punching in the number.

As soon as the line was answered, Troy could hear baby Ben crying loudly in the background. “Hello?” It was Andre, and he didn’t sound happy.

Troy covered his mouth in embarrassment and didn’t speak.

“Who is it?” Shirley called from the background.  “I was just getting Ben to sleep…”

“I don’t know, some cell phone number…”

Troy jerked the phone from his ear and almost ended the call. Then he realized Shirley would still recognize the number on the caller ID… Sheepishly, he returned the phone to his ear and said, “Uh, I’m so sorry, it’s Troy.”

“Who?” Andre asked.  Ben’s crying was getting louder.

“Here, sweetie, take him,” Shirley said, and got on the line. “Troy, is that you? What’s wrong, honey?” Despite the crying baby, her voice was sweet and concerned.

“I–uh–we, me and Annie, we’re broken down on I-70 somewhere,” he said, feeling awful for bothering them. “We’re trying to find someone to come get us, maybe…” Troy cringed. “…help pay for a tow truck?”

“Oh, baby, what are you and Annie doing all the way out there at this time of night? Are you…” Her voice rose even higher, if that were possible. “Were you on a getaway… together?”

“Yes, I mean no, I mean…” Troy silently handed over the phone to Annie.

She took it with a shrug. “Hi, Shirley. Yes, we’re stuck out here.  Abed went home for a visit, and we were going to see him. We’re fine – it’s the interstate, not some back road. We’re somewhere between Glenwood Springs and Gypsum.  I can’t see a mile marker, so I’m not sure exactly where. Hang on.”

Annie lowered the phone and called up the maps program on Troy’s phone. From his angle, he could see that there was 3G reception. Thank god. She lifted the phone again. “It looks like it’s about… six miles west of Gypsum.  Tell them it’s a 1983 Honda Accord, license plate number 636-PLL.” She was silent, presumably so Shirley could write that information down.  “Got it? Just have them call this number if they can’t find us.” She was silent again, then she shook her head. “No! There’s nothing to tell, I promise.  I _promise_.”

Was Annie talking about them? She sounded so sure that there was nothing to tell, it gave him a sad pang.

“I’ll pay you back the next time I see you, okay? No, really I understand.” Then Annie turned away and spoke in a low tone.  “I will.  Thank you so much, Shirley.” She ended the call and handed the phone back. “She says she’ll try to find a place nearby here – hopefully it won’t be too long.”

What had made Annie turn away?  He was afraid to ask.  “Whatever the bill is, I’ll pay half.”

“No, you—” Troy’s look silenced her protest.  “All right, thanks.”

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes. Finally, Annie spoke. “You know, Troy…”

He felt nothing but relief that she was going to get the ball rolling. “What?”

“This is all your fault.”

He hadn’t expected that! “What?”

“You broke her.  When you smacked the dashboard. I told you that you had to be careful.”

He almost started apologizing, but noticed a sly grin on her face. “I guess I did Hulk-smash it after all.  I better put on the purple pants.”

“Not the purple pants!” she said with a laugh. “Though any pants would look good on you…” She bit her lip and stopped talking.

A little bit of hope came back.  “So…”

“So…”

“What do you wanna do while we wait?”

“We probably shouldn’t use up the battery, except for the hazard lights… and save our phones, too.” Oddly, she bit her lip before continuing. “So I don’t know. Talk. I guess?”

They did really need to talk. “Sure.” Suddenly the car seemed a bit too close for comfort.  “You wanna do it outside?”

“Do it?” She didn’t meet his eyes.

“You know, talk! If the weather’s nice enough.” Troy opened the car door and stepped out.  It felt just fine, maybe around seventy degrees, a nice summer nighttime temperature. “Come on out.”

She did, bringing the flashlight and a bottle of water with her.  She looked toward the west and squinted. “Are those storm clouds?”

He followed her gaze.  “Might be.  Do you want me to check my weather app?”

“No, that’s okay. If it starts raining, there’s nothing we can do about it except get back into the car.”

 “Yeah.” Well, they were talking, but it was just small talk.  _Troy,_ his inner voice told him, _do you really believe that Abed is always right?_ He usually was. _Then_ talk _to her. For Abed._

“For Abed,” he murmured.

“What?” Annie asked.

“Oh,” he said, covering, “I just said, ‘Abed.’ I wonder how he’s doing.”

“Probably sleeping like a baby.”

“Better than Shirley’s baby, I hope.”

“Or Abed’s sister.” She shifted awkwardly and then asked.  “What did Abed talk to you about?”

“Um…” It was Troy’s turn to shift. “Mostly that I needed to talk to you.” He left out the particulars.

“Huh,” she said.  “He told me the same thing.” What was _she_ leaving out?

Troy took a deep breath, and went for it.  “There’s more. He told me that I should talk to you about… us.”

“Us?”  She didn’t sound surprised, which was good.

“ _Us_ us. He thinks we have…” He turned to face her. “…tension.”

She turned to face him as well, her chin tilted down, eyes focused upward at him.”Tension?”

“Are you just gonna repeat everything I say?” he teased.

A grin that barely touched the corners of her mouth formed. She opened her mouth, then shook her head.

His heart started to pound like a basketball on the court, seeing her look up at him that way. In that moment, he didn’t see the adoration of a crush, or the simple acceptance of a friend. It was a spark of something that he had never seen in Annie’s eyes before – something intriguing. And he wanted to know more.  “Annie, do you…?”

“…feel it?” She watched another car go by. “Yes. I don’t know how it happened.”

The tone of her voice told him she did know. And he did, too. They’d spent a great deal of time alone together, weathering this storm of emotions, and they’d come out the other side. Still… “We tried to do this before.”

“Well, the first time it was just me who liked you.”

“And the second time it was just me.”

“Is the third time the charm?” She took a step closer.

“No,” he said. She frowned at him in confusion. But before her confusion could turn to hurt, he closed the distance between them. “This,” he cupped her jaw with one hand, “is the first time.”

Their lips brushed, and he felt her intake of breath. If she felt surprise, she quickly overcame it and pressed her lips more firmly to his. After a moment, her mouth opened to him with a small sigh. Her tongue, soft but insistent, touched his, and he felt the world spin.

He didn’t care that they were standing by the side of the road out in the middle of nowhere. He didn’t care that the tow truck could show up any minute now. This was not Abed, this was not even Britta or any of the other girls he’d kissed in his lifetime. This was _Annie_ he was kissing under the dark clouds – all their history combined to give him such a feeling of peace and homecoming.

As he pulled her closer, Troy could vaguely feel the wind pick up around them. Annie’s hair blew around his face, tendrils gently slapping against his closed eyelids. A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance. They both ignored it.

Annie shifted her weight against him, pressing him back against the car door. Her bare knee threaded between his denim-clad legs, her thigh molding against his. All blood rushed from his head to his groin, and a groan escaped.

She responded with a soft hum of triumph, her hands going to encircle his waist. A car zoomed by, tapping the horn in a playful cadence. Annie didn’t seem to care, she hooked her thumbs through his belt loops and tugged gently. And just then, the first fat raindrops began to fall, striking his forehead and nose. He broke from her, breathing heavily.

“Inside?” she asked.

They were out of the rain, and into the back seat without Troy registering that they’d moved.  All he could focus on were Annie’s roving hands, her soft skin, the way her breasts rubbed across his chest as she kissed his neck. And all the while, the clock was ticking.

He pulled her down on top of him, out of the view of the windows. She smiled, slow and sexy. Somehow it was all Annie, and yet no Annie he’d ever known before. Then they were kissing again with more passion than before. He pulled at her clothing, she explored below his waistband…

“Oh my god,” he breathed, not really believing they were doing this. “Annie…” His mind seemed to fill with a strange sort of radiance, growing ever brighter. He thought he was going to burst with it…

All at once, he realized why. “Oh my god, _Annie_!” he shouted, pulling her hand out of his pants. He ducked down and pointed at the rear window. Pulling up behind the car was the tow truck, its headlamps flooding the windows with light.

She squeaked and began straightening her clothing. He did the same, positioning his untucked shirt to hide the… obvious.

Annie scrambled into the front seat just before the tow truck driver knocked on the window. She looked mostly pulled together when she cranked down the window. “You came so fast! Thank you.”

“Everyone okay?” The man looked into the car, noticing Troy in the back seat.

“Yeah, man,” Troy said, trying to keep his voice normal-sounding and mostly succeeding. “We’re cool.”

The man gave Troy a wink. “Maybe I shouldn’t have been quite so fast, huh?” Both Troy and Annie sputtered, but he kept on talking. “I’ll hook you right up, and we’ll be on our way.” He banged twice on the roof of the car, and headed back to his truck to pull it in front.

~0~0~0~

“Here?” the driver asked, looking doubtfully at Annie and the location of her apartment in turns.  The street was mostly deserted, except for a loiterer a couple doors now.

“Yes.” Annie nodded. Why should she apologize?

The driver looked to Troy, silently asking his permission.  Annie wanted to smack the guy. He had spent the entire drive peppering his conversation with double-entendres, and thinly veiled comments about mixed couples.

Troy simply answered, “Why are you looking at me? She _told_ you this is the place.”

Now Annie wanted to kiss Troy. A lot. For a goodly amount of time.

The driver shrugged, doubts gone. “Are you both getting out here?”

At the same time, Annie began to shake her head, Troy began to nod. She caught a split second of sadness from him before taking his hand in hers. She nodded firmly, and he nodded with a wide smile.

“All right. Sign here, please…”

When he was _finally_ gone, Annie and Troy stood there holding hands outside Dildopolis, both at a loss for words.

It was past midnight, and she was sure that campus security wouldn’t bother with a stakeout over something as trivial as a stolen screenplay. Her apartment was as safe as anywhere, that is, behind the multiple locks. Tomorrow, they would both have to face the music, but for now, they only faced each other.

“So…” Troy said.

“So…” Annie cut her eyes toward the stairwell.

Troy cut his eyes to the windows of Dildopolis. “You ever shop here?”

Annie half-laughed, half-cringed. “I’ve never even been in there. Some of the display items scare me. The customers scare me even more.”

Troy looked disappointed. “No?” He leaned forward toward the store, up on his tiptoes.  “It looks like some kind of magical… Sex Toys R Us.”

The loiterer, who turned out to be one of her semi-homeless neighbors, ambled toward them. “I could show you my magic wand, if you want…”

And this was why they needed to get behind all those locks, pronto.  “No, thank you, Harry,” she said, yanking Troy after her. “Have a good night!”

As they flew up the stairs, Troy whimpered, “Ten points from Gryffindor.”

~0~0~0~

For the second morning in a row, Annie woke up with Troy curled around her.  Only this time there were a lot fewer clothes. Annie shifted slightly, wriggling into him, and she smiled as Troy sleepily adjusted his hand splayed across her stomach.

She glanced at the bedside clock – 5:45am.  Of course, she _would_ wake up at the crack of dawn, since her body was conditioned to. But her class wasn’t until nine, and she _really_ didn’t want to leave the comfort of Troy’s arms.  Her boyfriend’s arms. That was a nice thought, especially considering it had been her dream in high school. But she wouldn’t trade the way this happened for a relationship back then. This was… perfect. She snuggled into his arms a bit more.

Troy moaned in his sleep and mumbled, “Yes, I’ll have the woolly mammoth, please,” and snorted once before becoming quiet again.

She wondered what that dream was about. She’d have to ask him later, if he remembered. She had a lot of things to ask him about later, actually - his thoughts, his hopes, his dreams.  How wonderful to have that to look forward to.

She suddenly needed to see his face. Slowly, carefully, she swiveled toward him.  In the faint dawn light, she studied his unfurrowed brow, his slightly open mouth, his other arm tucked up below his ear.  It was almost child-like, the way he looked while he slept.

She wanted to stroke her way down his arm, the curve of his jaw, every place the light touched, and several where it didn’t… but then she would wake him. And why was she awake anyway? Staying beneath the covers with him sounded a whole lot better than getting up to get ready.

She closed her eyes and was just starting to drift off when Troy abruptly called out in his sleep, “Bubbles!”

She woke, startled – she was going to have to get used to his sleep talking! – and her movement was just enough to awaken him, too.

He groaned. “Annie?” His eyes opened and he seemed to realize again where they were.  “Annie,” he said again, breaking into a grin.

She smiled back. “Morning.” She took advantage of his wakefulness and stroked his upper arm. “Sleep well?”

“When I slept,” he answered, winking a double entendre.

She eased over and kissed him lightly.  “Good,” she said, and kissed him again. “Breakfast?”  She immediately regretted it.  She had no desire to get out of the covers. Darn her natural tendencies.

“We could go to Dennys.  The one near school is awesome – they put extra Moons over My Hammy.”

“No, no.” Annie started to shift her way to a sitting position. She couldn’t back out now, that would make her a bad host. “I’ve got milk and cereal, eggs, I think there’s turkey bacon…”

“You’d cook?”

She shrugged. “If you’re hungry.” She slid her feet off the edge of the bed and reached for her robe.

Troy caught her other wrist. “I am.” Annie turned to give him a questioning glance.  He went on, “But not for eggs and turkey bacon.”

She was all too happy to let herself be pulled back under the covers.


	11. It's Greendale - It Could Be Anything

Annie grasped Troy’s hand as they walked from the parking lot onto campus. Maybe a little too hard, but he didn’t seem to mind. They had decided they were better facing the consequences of their theft together – so Annie was going to skip Arabic this morning (even though missing a class made her stomach twist) and stick with Troy. As soon as algebra class was over, they were going to see Professor Schloss, hopefully before security detained them.

Annie had done her best repair job on the screenplay, carefully mending the tears with tape and a box cutter and even ironing the pages between a couple of pieces of fabric.  They might be in trouble, but she wasn’t going to give Schloss anything extra to accuse them with.

They stopped just before the turn to the hallway where Troy’s classroom was located. “Check the hallway. What are we up against?” Troy whispered.

Annie peered around the corner, half-expecting to see security guards posted at the doors to Troy’s classroom. There was no one there. But that didn’t mean that they weren’t still lurking about.

“Nothing, as far as I can tell.  You ready?”

“Ready,” he said, and she was proud that he kept his voice from squeaking.

They walked hand-in-hand to the classroom door as if they hadn’t a care in the world.  Troy opened the door for her and she walked in, eyes scanning the room for any possible threat. The room looked just like it usually did, when she had a class in this room. The professor didn’t even give the two of them a curious look, despite the fact that Annie was a visitor.

Troy asked anyway, “Is it cool if she sits in today?”

She turned a page in her textbook. “Fine with me.”

Annie thanked her and settled into reading the next chapter of her Arabic textbook.  She might be missing class, but she wasn’t about to miss the work.

An hour later, she and Troy were gathering their things.  The class had passed completely without incident, though Annie still felt on edge from jumping at every unexpected sound, every face that passed at the window in the door. The walk over wasn’t much better.  Her confidence of the morning was dribbling away with every step toward the Language Arts building.

So Annie paused at Schloss’ door, knuckles poised to knock. Troy squeezed her hand and smiled encouragingly. It was enough. She rapped firmly on the door.

“Yes?” came Schloss’ voice.

Annie opened the door without announcing herself. Schloss looked up from typing at his computer. Seeing the two of them, a wide range of emotions crossed his face at almost lightning speed before it settled into mild interest.  “How can I help you?”

What in the world? Annie had never seen a more convincing chameleon act. “Um.”

Troy let go her hand and stepped forward confidently.  “We’re here to apologize for yesterday.” He held out his hand for Abed’s repaired screenplay, and Annie placed it there. “And to return this.”

“Thank you,” he said, taking it from Troy unperturbed and setting it on a neat stack of projects to his left. “I’m glad you…” He cleared his throat. “…reconsidered.”

Annie couldn’t keep the tiniest frown from her face. “It was wrong, but I hope you understand the circumstances were dire.” His mild manner made her words seem like an exaggeration, so she added, “At least to us.”

“I take it you… found Mr. Nadir?”

“Yes. We were very worried about him, but he’s okay.”

“I’m glad you found some… serenity. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a class in 45 minutes, and there are just a few final touches I need to add to my lesson plan.” He turned away.

Annie gave Troy a look of confusion. Troy shrugged. After a moment of standing there nonplussed, Troy mouthed the words, “We should _go_.”

She couldn’t agree more.

Arm in arm, they walked into the quad, behaving for the first time like an actual couple. Here and there, she caught the eye of a fellow classmate, someone who knew their little group of friends. The reactions were varied; from a set of raised eyebrows, to a whispered conversation, to a hearty thumbs’ up. Troy sent a thumbs’ up and a blinding smile back to Star-Burns. Did they find it as surprising as she and Troy had? Or did they see it coming, like Abed had?

In the end, it didn’t matter. She was happy, and there were no hurt feelings to worry about. Maybe a bruised ego lay ahead once the fall classes started… but Jeff was a big boy.

Then ahead of them, Annie saw one of the security guards, Officer Troy it looked like, moving toward them at a good clip.  Annie braced herself, clutching at Troy’s arm.  He did the same, making a stand, whatever was coming next.

All the man did was nod at the two of them cordially, and speed on past.  It was as if the whole chase of the previous day hadn’t happened at all.

Suddenly Annie felt very silly. Maybe she had built this whole incident into some sort of terrible crime of passion, and no one had been waiting to bring them before the Dean at all. She relaxed and turned to Troy. “Were we just being paranoid?”

“I dunno. Maybe they have bigger fish to fry?”

“It _is_ Greendale – it could be anything.”

“Yeah, And I’ve had enough excitement for one summer.” He swiveled her the other way from the direction Officer Troy had been heading.  “Let’s go _this_ way instead.”

~0~0~0~

Study group time came, and Annie and Troy took their seats in the library as always, both glancing sadly at Abed’s empty chair.

“So what do we work on today?” Annie asked.

“Well, today is usually Abed’s turn, but…”

“But what?” Abed asked, gliding in and sitting down.

Annie and Troy jumped out of their chairs with a shout. “Abed! You’re back!” Annie cried, pulling him back up out of his chair and throwing her arms around him.

Troy seemed to revel in sharing their special handshake. “I thought you weren’t coming back yet, buddy!”

Abed blinked. “I said I would come back when everything was resolved.”

Troy and Annie looked at each other in confusion.  It felt like that was all they’d been doing lately.

“Isn’t it?” Abed glanced between the two of them.

Annie blushed, Troy suddenly found his shoes extremely interesting.

“So, like I said. Resolved.” He gave them a smile, one that made Annie feel like she had been absorbed into this great wacky, wonderful three-way friendship, with benefits on one side. “And Troy, we’re getting an apartment together in the fall. Is that cool with you?”

Annie could see it was more than cool. “Thanks, man,” Troy said, hugging him. “I was too afraid to ask after what happened last year. You’re the best.” He had to wipe a happy tear away after they pulled apart.

Abed sat back down and opened his netbook. “I need to come up with a new ending for my screenplay.”

“Schloss… he’s letting you fix it?” Troy asked.

“Yep.” Abed called up the file. “Extenuating circumstances.”

“He accepted that?” Annie was amazed – what had changed Schloss’ mind so much in 24 hours? “Without an argument?”

“There was an argument. He didn’t think he should allow me to revise my project. I didn’t think he should be stealing his students’ ideas for his mystery novels.  He saw my point of view.”

Troy laughed in disbelief.  “Did you _blackmail_ him, Abed? You?”

“Blackmail? I didn’t see it that way. Just an exchange of information. Though I can’t tell you whether or not he saw it that way.” Abed wore a tiny grin.

“That’s our Abed,” Annie said fondly.

“With that kind of knowledge, you probably didn’t have to finish the project at all,” Troy said.

Abed shrugged. “Why not? I wanted to finish it. I like it when loose ends are tied up.” He called up the file on his computer. “Any thoughts on my ending?”

“A few,” Annie said with a smile, and moved to the chair on Abed’s left, to see better.

“I have some, too.” Troy said, scooting forward.  “How do you feel about prehistoric mammals?”

~0~0~0~

“4… 3… 2… 1… Ready or not, here I come!” As soon as Abed removed his hands from his eyes, he was scanning the library stacks for any clues.  Was another student looking downward with a curious glance? Were there suspiciously quiet areas? Densely-packed shelves which made for better hiding places?

He and Troy had played Hide and Seek a million times, but with additional players, it was a whole new game. Was it every man (or woman) for himself? Or had they developed a strategy?

As silently as possible he moved through the aisles, raising up onto his tiptoes or crouching to peer around a low shelf.  A few people gave him a strange look, but most people were used to ‘that weird, tall Middle Eastern kid’ and his library antics.  Hopefully he hadn’t given himself away to his opponents.

However, his opponents were definitely giving themselves away to him. He followed a trail of embarrassed or smiling people back to the historical fiction section. Positioning himself so that they wouldn’t see him until it was too late, he inched a few books out of a shelf to get a better view…

And promptly put the books back with an affectionate smile.  If he wanted an eyeful of his best friends making out, he could get that any night.

So he turned the corner and tagged Garrett on the back before he could react. Garrett collapsed into a flailing pile of arms and legs anyway.  Abed held out a hand to help him up.

“Why do you always find me first?” Garrett complained with a huff, pushing his glasses back onto his nose.

Abed shrugged. “You want to get a snack at the cafeteria?”

“What about—?”

“They’ll forgive us.” Abed and Garrett were well into their second helping by the time Annie and Troy found them.

 **End.**


End file.
